NZ History

[Jamie Mackay]

We've just launched a feature on the 1918 influenza pandemic which includes recollections of people who lived through it.

/culture/influenza-pandemic

Some quite harrowing stuff here and some very interesting insights - eg that Armistace Day may have caused some people to die as vital supplies were unavailbale (as shops were closed) and that, as one woman remembered, 'It wasn't safe for men to go out on the farms alone in case they were struck down and no one knew where they were'

Comments? Reactions? Could it happen again....?

cheers,
Jamie

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[Effie Rankin]

I have just written about the Pandemic, but it may have all been erased.

If you read the book Plague of the Spainish Lady as well as information about NZ [and the story of my grandmother, Effie Gould a nurse in Taranaki ] it tells how healthy young soldiers from Minnisota all died where as the unit of Londoners who had been sent in to look after flu victims in France all lived.
There was an article in the newspaper a few years ago explaining why the person became cyanosed and then died and why they survived if they had a massive nose bleed.
The captain of the ship which brought Mr's Massey and Ward back from Europe signalled to say he had the plague aboard and should go into isolation but was ordered by [?] Parliament to dock. They brought the flu to NZ. I read on this site somewhere it was the returning troops, but they did not return for months after that.
In about 1951 when I was living in London some of the bodies from the victims of Black Plague several hundred years ago and close to St. Paul's Cathedral, Queen Victoria St. were disturbed in the cleaning up after the bombing I was working in a hospital and we were told that they were still contagous.
This is an interesting subject.
Effie

[Neill Atkinson]

Thanks for your comments Effie - the 1918 pandemic is indeed an interesting and tragic part of our history, and one that is rather surprisingly not that well known. As for your comments about PM Massey and Deputy PM Ward, it is true that it was widely thought at the time that the most virulent strain of the flu arrived in Auckland aboard their ship, the RMS Niagara from Vancouver and San Francisco, on 12 October 1918. There was a lot of public antipathy towards Massey because it was alleged that he had personally ordered that quarantine measures be bypassed. However, subsequent research, eg in Geoffrey Rice's book, Black November, Chapter 7, showed that at least six people had died of the flu in Auckland in the three days before the Niagara arrived, and that the great upsurge in flu cases in the city occurred two weeks later, well outside the 48 hour incubation period. Certainly, 29 Niagara crew and several passengers were hospitalised in Auckland (overall only 10 of the 312 passengers had been affected), but doctors who treated them reported that their cases were no more severe others already seen in the city. And in any case the deadlier strain of flu was not epidemic in Vancouver or San Francisco at the time the Niagara left those ports. Furthermore, it is not true that Massey, Ward or the government had any influence over whether the ship was quarantined or not; indeed, Massey insisted that they be treated the same as other passengers. Dozens of ships arrived in NZ from Europe and North America in October 1918 (while it is true the majority of NZ soldiers did not return home until 1919, smaller contingents did return throughout 1918, including of course many war invalids), and it is therefore misleading to single out the Niagara as the culprit.

[Effie Rankin]

Thank you Neill for your reply.
I suppose that just proves that the more you read about a subject the more you know, and with more records available we are able to get more information.
My aunt who accompanied my nurse grandmother and others have all said about how anyone who had a massive bleed survived, but those who didn't often died. Why ?
My father told me that a neighbour of theirs in the Tuamarina area, Blenheim had done his milking and was about to sit down to breakfast when one of the family asked him what was wrong with his face. He went to the mirror to have a look and fell down dead. Many did not have any time of illness or warning.
The farmers in Taranaki left many of their gates open so if they died someone else could milk their cows.
I'll continue to watch this with great interest.
Thanks,
Effie