Sadly, these expectations were not always realised - many married feckless men and ended up bringing up children on their own.
Children are at once portrayed as wilful 'tearaways' that terrorise teachers, communities and each other and as the innocent 'victims' of 'feckless', irresponsible parents.
These are, respectively, feckless pluralism, and dominant power politics.
However, this is not because they are improvident or feckless.
At the same time, this individualisation of actions and morality enabled the 'feckless poor' to be blamed for their situation, in a way still politically familiar to us today.
But not all fathers are so feckless.
Those at the bottom of the heap - the feckless, the incompetent, the eccentric and the shady - threatened their neighbours' enterprises and undermined the public image of white settler progress.
Although cunningly couched in euphemisms and evasions, the concept of the 'feckless and fertile' continues to be a central premise in family planning and population studies.
