| Their sister Lizzie also struggled to find an explanation. She had never been to school herself, so probably thought that was just part of a boys' life. She blamed their father: 'If our mother had lived the boys would have been different, but they have always feared their father & have felt they were not understood' In a typical note, the pragmatic Lizzie added, 'But why talk of it. The fact remains that they are what they are.((Praed papers, notebook, Box 23/ , 20250416_115422.jpg))\\ | Their sister Lizzie also struggled to find an explanation. She had never been to school herself, so probably thought that was just part of a boys' life. She blamed their father: 'If our mother had lived the boys would have been different, but they have always feared their father & have felt they were not understood' In a typical note, the pragmatic Lizzie added, 'But why talk of it. The fact remains that they are what they are.((Praed papers, notebook, Box 23/ , 20250416_115422.jpg))\\ |
| Yet the school, the distance from family remains suspect. This was the age of 'spare the rod and spoil the child', when severe physical punishment was routine in schools. Yet the High School's Headmaster, the Rev. Poulett Harris, 'was charged with assaulting boys with a cane in March 1860 and June 1868, the first case being dismissed and the second settled out of court'. In the first case, the boy apparently was returned to school by his father; in the second the issue appeared to be that the boy was no longer a pupil there, and had grabbed the cane from Harris when the later tried to cane him. Were these incidents a reflection of a too-ready recourse to the cane, even for this time? Is it relevant that Harris was 'prone to depression', with a daughter who was committed to a mental hospital? What was the impact on him when his 5-year old son suffered the ghastly fate of burning to death in a bonfire accident in 1860?((E. L. French, 'Harris, Richard Deodatus Poulett (1817–1899)', //Australian Dictionary of Biography//, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/harris-richard-deodatus-poulett-3726/text5855, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 14 August 2018; //Launceston Examiner//, 13 March 1860, p.2 & 13 March 1860, p.2; //The Mercury//, 4 June 1868, p.1; The Maitland Mercury, 7 January 1860, p.7.)) Whatever was the case, TLM-P was satisfied, as he allowed himself to be named as a referee when the School advertised for Queensland pupils.((E.g., //Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser//, 7 January 1869, p.2 and 21 February 1871, p.1; //The Brisbane Courier//, 31 August 1872, p.1.)) In January 1877 it was reported that three Queensland boys were at the school, including 'young Prior', only identified as TLM-P's son, winning a special prize for proficiency in French. It is not known if the two other 'Queensland boys' were his brothers.((//The Brisbane Courier//, 11 January 1877, p.2.)) \\ | Yet the school, so far from family, remains suspect. This was the age of 'spare the rod and spoil the child', when severe physical punishment was routine in schools. Yet the High School's Headmaster, the Rev. Poulett Harris, 'was charged with assaulting boys with a cane in March 1860 and June 1868, the first case being dismissed and the second settled out of court'. In the first case, the boy apparently was returned to school by his father; in the second the issue appeared to be that the boy was no longer a pupil there, and had grabbed the cane from Harris when the later tried to cane him. Were these incidents a reflection of a too-ready recourse to the cane, even for this time? Is it relevant that Harris was 'prone to depression', with a daughter who was committed to a mental hospital? What was the impact on him when his 5-year old son suffered the ghastly fate of burning to death in a bonfire accident in 1860?((E. L. French, 'Harris, Richard Deodatus Poulett (1817–1899)', //Australian Dictionary of Biography//, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/harris-richard-deodatus-poulett-3726/text5855, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 14 August 2018; //Launceston Examiner//, 13 March 1860, p.2 & 13 March 1860, p.2; //The Mercury//, 4 June 1868, p.1; The Maitland Mercury, 7 January 1860, p.7.)) Whatever was the case, TLM-P was satisfied, as he allowed himself to be named as a referee when the School advertised for Queensland pupils.((E.g., //Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser//, 7 January 1869, p.2 and 21 February 1871, p.1; //The Brisbane Courier//, 31 August 1872, p.1.)) In January 1877 it was reported that three Queensland boys were at the school, including 'young Prior', only identified as TLM-P's son, winning a special prize for proficiency in French. It is not known if the two other 'Queensland boys' were his brothers.((//The Brisbane Courier//, 11 January 1877, p.2.)) \\ |
| We need to be cautious assuming childhood difficulties resulted in adult problems. Heavy drinking by all classes was a feature of Queensland colonial life, so perhaps no other explanation is needed than the boys reflecting the social conditions around them.((Ross Fitzgerald, //From the Dreaming to 1915. A History of Queensland//,St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1982,pp.277,305.)) Additionally, former pupils admired Poulett-Harris enough to erect this memorial to him, now in the Queens Domain Hobart.{{:poulett-harris_memorial.jpg?100|Photo courtesy Margaret Dalkin}} Yet doubt remains: why did the younger boys have such difficult lives? Why did their loving elder siblings (Tom and Lizzie) as well as stepmother later find them so very difficult, and their father write about their behaviour, that it was 'all very hard, and cut me up.'((TLM-P diary, 16 August 1882))\\ | We need to be cautious assuming childhood difficulties resulted in adult problems. Heavy drinking by all classes was a feature of Queensland colonial life, so perhaps no other explanation is needed than the boys reflecting the social conditions around them.((Ross Fitzgerald, //From the Dreaming to 1915. A History of Queensland//,St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1982,pp.277,305.)) Additionally, former pupils admired Poulett-Harris enough to erect this memorial to him, now in the Queens Domain Hobart.{{:poulett-harris_memorial.jpg?100|Photo courtesy Margaret Dalkin}} Yet doubt remains: why did the younger boys have such difficult lives? Why did their loving elder siblings (Tom and Lizzie) as well as stepmother later find them so very difficult, and their father write about their behaviour, that it was 'all very hard, and cut me up.'((TLM-P diary, 16 August 1882))\\ |