23/12/2024
Marion White was living in Tarras when the below poem was written. She had passed through Otago Girls' High School on a full scholarship (high school was not free at the time) and qualified to continue her studies at Otago University. Four years later, she achieved an MA with honours.
These words were written by an 18 year old woman, and show a literary promise which was not to be fulfilled. It was simply due to her gender. When she died, Marion White was able to vote (but not for a woman) but the academic prospects for a brain such as hers were severely limited. Other educated New Zealand women might travel to Britain where opportunities were greater but Marion came from a working family and she had two sisters to support.
"I never thought the act wicked, only inevitable." was written to her doctor shortly before her death. The jury's verdict at her inquest included the words "while in an unsound state of mind" but that was the tradition. My opinion was that she knew exactly what she was doing.
The full story:
https://otagotaphophile.blogspot.com/2021/05/marion-steven-wilson-white-ma-1870.html?m=1
