"I do swear that I will well and truly serve our Sovereign Lady the Queen in the office of special constable for the City of Hobart Town ..."
Nevin's MPO supervisor,
Superintendent Richard Propsting
Unattributed, MPO 1879
AOT Ref: 30-282c
Thomas Nevin's appointment to the Municipal Council at the Town Hall appeared in The Mercury Supplement on January 24, 1876, Page 1, column 6:
TRANSCRIPT
Mr. Thomas Nevin, photographer, has been appointed Town Hall keeper, Hobart Town, in succession to the late Mr. Needham. There were 24 applicants for the office.Life at the Hobart Town Hall as a full-time civil servant from January 1876, as Office-keeper by 1878, and Hall-keeper until December 1880 was both an interesting and stressful time for Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin. Their third child, second son Sydney John died there aged 4 months, reported in The Mercury on January 29th, 1877. Two more sons were born there; William John in 1878, and George Ernest in 1880.
The New York Times on February 9th, 1875, printed an account by the American team visiting Hobart to photograph the Transit of Venus in December 1874. Their description of the Town Hall mentioned the Public Library and the availability of overseas newspapers:
New York Times, February 8th, 1875
Other early accounts detail not only the Library, but other areas of the building which housed the Municipal Police Offices, a municipal court and a number of lock up cells in the basement. Nevin's office duties included the provision of criminal identification photographs for the Police Office, taken of repeat offenders on incarceration and release from the Hobart Gaol, the Supreme Court, and the MPO for the central criminal registers.
The Town Hall was the busiest venue in Hobart for a wide range of entertainments, including flower and poultry shows, art and music conversazione, bazaars of furniture, and packed-out evenings featuring dioramas of "Zulu" Thompson's American, Zulu and Prussian wars.
Crowded houses:
Thompson's Dioramas
The Mercury 14 February 1879
Tensions within the local population were running high in June 1879 when Thomas Nevin was sworn in as Special Constable to maintain the peace during the visit and lecture at the Town Hall by the Canadian lapsed Catholic priest, Charles Chiniquy. Mention of this fact was made in the report which appeared in The Mercury December 4, 1880, of Nevin's dismissal from his position at the Town Hall for inebriation while on duty some eighteen months later:
BY THE MAYOR: Witness had never been sworn in to act as a special constable except on the occasion of the disturbances which arose during the visit of Pastor Chiniquy ...
Read the full article [pdf]
Swearing in Special Constables
The Mercury, 28 June 1879, page 3
CHARLES CHINIQUY
There are several accounts of the Chiniquy riots, depending on the teller. Some saw the events as a disturbance, others called them riots. Chiniquy's account tells how the door of the Town Hall was broken down, and hand-to-hand combat ensued between the Protestant guard and the Catholic protesters, resulting in wounds on both sides. Thomas Nevin would have been armed with a constable's baton as a Special Constable and issued a white armband.
Charles Chiniquy, in his own words apparently, gave this account:
The very next day (21st of April) at Castlemain, I was again fiercely attacked and wounded on the head as I came from addressing the people. One of the ministers who was standing by me was seriously wounded and lost much blood. At Geelong, I had again a very narrow escape from stones thrown at me in the streets. In 1879, while lecturing in Melbourne, the splendid capital of Victoria, Australia, I received a letter from Tasmania, signed by twelve ministers of the Gospel saying:THE PRESS
"We are much in need of you here, for though the Protestants are in the majority, they leave the administration of the country almost entirely in the hands of Roman Catholics, who rule us with an iron rod. The governor is a Roman Catholic, etc. We wish to have you among us, though we do not dare to invite you to come. For we know that your life will be in danger day and night while in Tasmania. The Roman Catholics have sworn to kill you, and we have too many reasons to fear that they will fulfill their promises. But, though we do not dare ask you to come, we assure you that there is a great work for you here, and that we will stand by you with our people. If you fall, you will not fall alone."
I answered: "Are we not soldiers of Christ, and must we not be ready and willing to die for Him, as He did for us? I will go."
On the 24th of June, as I was delivering my first lecture in Hobart Town, the Roman Catholics, with the approbation of their bishop, broke the door of the hall, and rushed towards me, crying, "Kill him! kill him!" The mob was only a few feet from me, brandishing their daggers and pistols, when the Protestants threw themselves between them and me, and a furious hand-to-hand fight occurred, during which many wounds were received and given. The soldiers of the Pope were overpowered, but the governor had to put the city under martial law for four days, and call the whole militia to save my life from the assassins drilled by the priests.
Architect Henry Hunter wrote to The Mercury, published on June 24, 1879, complaining of "orgies" at the Town Hall:
The Mercury on the 25 June 1879 was scathing of the incompetence of the police and Superintendent Propsting, who was caricatured by T. Midwood in his cartoon "The Light of Other Days", 1880:
T. Midwood's cartoon of Supt Propsting
State Library of Tasmania,
Ref: AUTAS001124067547
... A more helpless display of cowardice, imbecility, and ignorance of duty, was never manifested on the part of the police of Hobart Town, and that is saying a great deal.... But the presence of the police, and their inactivity, though jostled by the rowdies, countenanced disturbance rather than repressed it; and when Mr Superintendent Propsting publicly declined interference, he admitted that the police were present where they were useless, while, to allow them to be present, the city was left unprotected ...
Click on image for readable version
The Mercury, June 25, 1879
THE OFFICIAL ACCOUNTS
William Henry Burgess (1847-1917) was a Wesleyan, a wholesale merchant, and the Hobart Town Mayor at the time. His biographer in the Australian Dictionary of Biography gives this account:
Believing that civic administration in Hobart needed improvement he offered himself as an alderman. He was elected in 1876, was made a justice of the peace in 1878 and became mayor in 1879. In that year Charles Pasqual Chiniquy, a priest expelled from the Roman Catholic church, caused great disturbance when he applied for the use of the Hobart Town Hall. The premier, W. L. Crowther, notified Burgess that he was responsible as mayor for the public peace. The City Council supported the right to liberty of speech and decided to enforce law and order with their own resources. Burgess recruited 150 volunteers to act as special constables, but when violence seemed imminent Governor Weld and his Executive Council decided to call out the volunteer corps. Two buglers were stationed at the Town Hall to give the alarm, but Bishop Murphyappealed to his flock and Chiniquy addressed a capacity audience without interruption. This was perhaps the most remarkable military episode in the otherwise peaceful history of Hobart.
Mayor W. H. Burgess
Reprint by Beattie, J. W. Date: 19--?
Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
ADRI: AUTAS001125880815
The Catholic Archbishop Daniel Murphy's biographer saw it this way:
In July 1879 when the Canadian lapsed priest, Charles Chiniquy, lectured in Hobart, Catholic Archbishop Daniel Murphy (1815-1907) was praised by Governor Weld for preventing bloodshed. He persuaded a large gathering of armed Catholics in the Domain not to march to the Town Hall which was guarded by Orangemen; instead they escorted the bishop home.And the Premier of Tasmania's son, Edward Crowther, contributed by mustering the militia:
Like many others [Edward] Crowther (1843-1931) was alarmed by Russian infiltration towards India and he decided to reform the neglected Southern Tasmanian Volunteer Artillery. With carefully selected recruits and experienced officers he helped to make an efficient unit, despite official reluctance to provide powder and shell for gun practice; their discipline and appearance with field guns had a steadying effect when martial law was proclaimed in the Chiniquy riots.A contemporary academic assessment appeared in the journal Labour History, Number 75, 1998, titled "Creating an Orderly Society: The Hobart Municipal Police 1880-1898" by Stefan Petrow:
OPEN ATTACHMENT:
ABSTRACT
The late 19th century witnessed a remarkable decline in urban crime and disorder in Australia, England, and America. Historians have suggested various reasons for this decline including the spread of education, the introduction of social reforms, and greater economic prosperity. Another key factor was the development of more numerous and efficient police forces. As the importance of these factors differed from city to city, local studies of particular cities are needed to help understanding of the wider processes at work. This article examines the role of the Hobart municipal police in helping to make Hobart into an orderly city. It considers the reform of the police after the Chiniquy riots of 1879, the role of Superintendent Frederick Pedder in enforcing a new code of conduct on the police and the improved working conditions enjoyed by the police. The article considers how successfully the municipal police dealt with disorder created by the Salvation Army, prostitutes, and pubs. The conclusion examines why centralisation of the police was introduced in 1898.
Swearing in Special Constables
The Mercury, 28 June 1879, page 3
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Town Hall Hobart Town 1875,
H.H. Baily photo
W.L. Crowther Library
ADRI: AUTAS001124850751
Town Hall & Public Library
Anson Bros Date: ca. 1878
Description: 1 photograph : sepia toned ; 105 X 180 mm.
Notes: View taken from the corner of Macquarie and Elizabeth Streets.
Location: W.L. Crowther Library
ADRI: AUTAS001127111730
Macquarie Street looking west
Anson Bros Date: ca. 1878
Description: 1 photograph : sepia toned ; 105 X 180 mm.
Notes: View taken from the corner of Macquarie and Argyle Streets.
Location: W.L. Crowther Library
ADRI: AUTAS001127111755
