In May 1895, Minnie Dean boarded a train in Invercargill holding a baby and a hatbox. When she alighted the train on her return, she only possessed the hatbox, which railway porters remarked was ‘suspiciously heavy’. The Station Guard alerted New Zealand police to the possibility of a missing baby. In reality, they had a much larger problem on their hands - the systemic issue of what was dubbed "baby-farming" in New Zealand.