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Fostering of Little Peter
Following my birth occurring at Nazareth House here in
ChristChurch New Zealand on the 20th September 1941 it would be obvious my now young child mother and I would have been whisked out of there as quickly as possible it seems we were admitted to the
Louisham Catholic Hospital in the centre of the City from where twelve days later my young mother and I parted company my mother's destination was Mt Magdala where it seems she was given the name Frances Terese she was to spend the next five years of her life in this institution Mt Magdala it seems perhaps no one within the Catholic organization may have not perhaps thought to get a live in house keeping type job for my mother to acquire some real world living skills amongst which she could have received assistance to become a mother to me but it seems for some reason it may have been more important for her to pay pennance for someone elses wrong for which it seems that person my birth father probably escaped a hefty hard labour prison sentence for the pricely sum of (15/-) fifteen shillings a week maintenace money
Whilst in the grasp of this Catholic organization mum was to remain there until twenty one years of age however it seems mum was released just after her 20th birthday due to the fact it seems
Mt Magdala had recorded her year of birth as being 1924 when in fact mums date of birth was 25th January 1925 it is the view of many that perhaps the change in the year of my mothers birth might have been an attempt to remove the
Child stigma?
The fact I was born to an Orphan child resident of Nazareth House it seems in my view the Nuns there in 1941 took responsibillity to handle the necessary Fostering arrangements because they were responsible for me a defenceless illigitimate whose young mother had somehow become pregnant whilst in their
trusted care The then Child Welfare Department I think should have been more strict with this serious sexual violation of an orphaned child
C.W. - 20 "Ink Pen" entries upon this un numbered document require ratification regarding (1) The identity of the person payning my maintenance through the Sisters at Nazareth House in ChristChurch New Zealand from 1941 at least until my adoption in January 1946 who seems to have enjoyed annonominity The person in charge at Nazareth House shared the same responsibillities
as the Superintendent of the then Child Welfare Division
had over children in State Care
(2) Who was Peter Erskine Carmody the name of whom remains decipherable upon this document that name must have relevance to have remained upon this un numbered document for without relevance this C.W. - 20 could have easily been replaced with a fresh one
It seems the then Sisters at Nazareth House in 1941 approached Mrs White whose mother in law Katherine Margaret White was receiving respite care at Nazareth House following a stroke which left her paralized down one side it has also been alleged that when visiting her mother in law there the first port of call was the Office of the Sister in Charge for tea, cakes and sandwiches while discussing the task of Fostering me about whom it seems they were embarrassed having to find a placement for and without such an arrangement it seems Mrs White was told this illigitimate baby boy's destination would be St Josephs' Home hence in hard economic times with an already made family of four her eldest son fifghting at the Second World War her next in the New Zealand Army operating the Radar Station at Godley Heads and with the education of her two youngest aged 10 and 12 years it is inconceiveable with the full time Nursing Care she also provided for her mother in law amidst these hard economic times how she made this arduous decision to undertake the task to also Foster me
Mrs White's Foster Licence was issued the day she took possession of me on the 10th November 1941 it seems
Mrs White received me at Nazareth House
With these arrangements now firmly in situ it seems my young mother was then intoduced to Mrs White whose family say my young mother and her sister then still a resident at Nazareth House regularly visited me on week ends for these visits to occurr obvious transport arrangements were in place to travel from Mt Magdala collect her sister from Nazareth House and return would certainly not have involved travelling by Tram residents of either Orphanage never had a controlling reign and it seems no resident went anywhere without the Nuns knowledge of into whose care they were discharged otherwise it seems residents were escorted by the Nuns themselves
These visits would have been a heart wrenching exercise for my Orphan mother to try and cope with along with coming to terms with the fact of what was done to her put her in this predicament of being my mother and unaware of perhaps a predetermined move to later induce her to agree to my Adoption It is not only my view that my mother might have initially been kidded to by someone in the Catholic organization who may have implanted the thoughts that once she had been discharged from Mt Magdala she would be able to take her illegitimate son and care for him while she pehaps house keep for someone?
The house keeping seems to have come into vogue doing that task for her second cousin ? Fr Eugene Carmine in the Parish of Stratfod hence the frequency of her visits have now been curtailed due to the fact she is now in the North Island though my mother came and spent holidays visiting me and they continued for a year after my adoption had occurred I was seven years of age when her visits ceased though I constantly expected her return it never happened.
The week following her twenty first birthday it seems she had been pursuaded to agree to having me adopted and signed an Affidavit which had been prepared for that purpose It is inconceivable how my mother handled this I personally do not believe she fully understood that she was giving me up for good but it happened on the
30th of Janauary 1946
In the ChristChurch Court
By way of Adoption
My Surname was changed from
Carmie to White
In all my mother had three Cousins Catholic priests
My recollections of an "Aunty Dora" visiting commence at around three years of age when one evening I was told your
"Aunty Dora" is coming she would take me to town for
professional Photograps which were taken at Green & Hahns Studios Mrs White the lady whom I thought was my mother
would accompany us sometimes. "Aunty Dora" was there
when I came home from starting School at the local
Beckeham Catholic Convent she was even there when I brought my first Reading Book home from School
It is not only my view it seems she was persecuted to pay a
pennance for the crime someone committed against her whilst living in the care and protection of the Sisters at
Nazareth House in ChristChurch New Zealand
Eventually my questions as to when Aunty Dora would be returning fell on deaf ears and the word Adoption was never mentioned in the White's home.
However my instinct regarding a natural bond between Aunty Dora and I was ratified while selling raffle tickets
for the Convent door to door in Beckenham at the age of eight years a woman asked my name and upon replying Peter White she said
oh no you're not a White you're one of us you're a Carmine
I stored this information and never disclosed it to the White's this lady herself had married into the Carmine family and obviously was not only privvy to the fact her nice
Dora had an illigitmate son she had somehow procured the information for her to believe my father was a Catholic priest this lady who lived in excess of a 100 years of age claimed this to be a fact even a few years prior to her death.
Eventually the professional portraits vanished from the dining room cabinet from where I secretly viewed them.
Then at the age of fifteen years I asked at Nazareth House if they could help me find Dora Camine? I was told they never knew where Dora Carmine was or in fact how she could be located. | 
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