Spectrum was a long-running weekly radio documentary series which captured the essence of New Zealand from 1972 to 2016. Alwyn Owen and Jack Perkins produced the series for many years, creating a valuable library of New Zealand oral history.
It began in April 1913 among the northern Māori community and by July it was sweeping through Auckland and the Waikato. It was initially diagnosed as smallpox, but was it? Alwyn Owen looks at the epidemic and its effects, and speculates on its nature.
A newspaper account is read, describing how on April 8th 1913 the passenger steam ship Zealandia arrived in Auckland with seventy passengers from Vancouver, including a Mr Richard Shumway, a Mormon missionary. He was headed to [Te Hora] pā in Northland to attend a Māori hui on April 14th. The day after arrival Shumway fell ill with pains in his head, a sore throat and rash that covered his whole body.
A Women’s Christian Temperance Union nurse, Florence Harsant was travelling through the area at the time and remembers observing two Mormon elders praying for the “gift of tongues” and delivered, much to the awe of the Māori present. However she believes this was less due to a ‘miracle’ than learning it from Māori Mormons living in Utah.
With the desirable impression made, Shumway received attentive care from the community. However as Harsant travelled around the north she saw many Māori suffering from smallpox. The virus spread north-west of Whangarei and south, down to Auckland by those returning from the hui. Land court hearings in Auckland saw a further spread south into the Waikato and Thames valleys.
On July 1st 1913 a newspaper report from Sydney reported the arrival of the small pox outbreak from Vancouver. Over the next few days the spread intensified and by July 5th Sydney was in quarantine with a fifteen mile radius. By July 7th 15,500 people had been vaccinated but still no one made the connection between cases in New Zealand and Australia.
Dr Ventry Smith of Whangarei reported a case of smallpox on 10th May but this diagnosis was challenged by Auckland’s District Health Officer, Dr Monk who travelled north and pronounced it was only chicken pox. Within a couple of weeks an elderly Māori man had died of the disease in Mangarere and by July 6th the Chief Health officer, Dr Valentine arrived in Auckland from Wellington for consultation.
The doctors' discussions about whether it was chicken pox or small pox were non-conclusive however Dr Valentine wrote a memo to the Ministry of Health flagging the epidemic to the wider public but for some unknown reason the memo was never sent. Meanwhile Auckland’s newspapers brought the update into the public arena and the Health Department was questioned about measures that had not been taken.
By July 9th there had been two deaths near Cambridge and Sydney had 191 people in quarantine. A.M. Myers asked the Ministry of Health to state the exact nature of the disease but still no conclusive medical agreement could be given. By July 10th the mayor of Cambridge had stopped “natives” entering the town and wholesale vaccination had been advised. The indecision of the medical profession was based on the fact that the smallpox vaccination was effective but confused by a low mortality rate.
Vaccination clinics were set up but the epidemic had still not been named. By July 12th, 150 Aucklanders had been vaccinated and this doubled within three days. In comparison, Sydney had successfully vaccinated 100,000 people. The old disused Infectious Diseases Hospital at Point Chevalier was established to treat 40 patients in isolation, much to the horror of racially intolerant local residents.
The Health Department also issued a public enforcement that all conveyance companies could not let any Māori or "half-caste" board public transport without presenting a certificate of vaccination; the warning came with a penalty of 50 pounds. Māori were also issued with a warning, that they were not to embark on any travel unless able to present the vaccination certificate and would also be fined if they did not comply.
Maui Pōmare, a Minister without Portfolio, pointed out this was racist. Te Rangi Hīroa (Dr Peter Buck) visited Kaikohe and confirmed 57 cases of smallpox and three deaths and advised the importance of vaccination for Māori communities.
Florence Harsant tells how she arrived at a pā in Whangaruru late at night in the pouring rain. Every house was full of smallpox and though she accepted an invitation to stay the night made sure her distance was kept. The next morning the Māori man who had offered her shelter dirtied her with mud in an effort to cover the fact she’d slept at the house that night, or else she would not have been allowed on the launch to Whangarei.
Once at Whangarei hospital, Harsant reported all the villages she’d encountered stricken with smallpox with no-one to look after them. The Health Department sent teams into the field with a two pronged attack; vaccination clinics were set-up and field isolation hospitals were established under canvas. Twelve Otago medical students offered their services and were sent north to assist. An account of severe cases written by Dr Jessie Scott is read from the journal, Kiaitiaki.
In towns and cities there was more fear than compassion. Māori were segregated from fearful pākēhā and the subsequent social effects from the racial severing were recognised in a telegram to the Member for Eastern Māori, Āpirana Ngata from Dr Peter Buck in August. It meant work was unobtainable for Māori and food and medical supplies were failing. There was little compassion shown by the cities.
Nursing staff in the field saw first-hand how hard quarantine was and Florence Harsant recalls one storekeeper explained to her how he dealt with Māori customers he knew had the disease, getting them to put their coins in a jar of disinfectant, and handing their groceries over tied to a long stick.
An Auckland Star editorial rebutted the Health Department’s proposal that the clothing and bedding of all infected Maōri should be burnt. The editorial deemed it an “unwarranted infringement of [Māori] rights” which only served to add to the distress and resentment with unemployment and food shortages. The newspaper appealed to the government to be proactive and assist the Māori community with grants.
By mid-September cases had dropped overall but flared in Te Teko in the Bay of Plenty until April 1914. Published statistics indicated 466 ‘Māori’ cases were recorded in 1913, 62 in 1914 and 55 deaths. European cases totalled 116 with no deaths. In his book, ‘Challenge for Health’ Mr F.S. McLean suggests that these stats fell well short and figures were four times greater.
Dr Roger Ridley-Smith of Wellington is asked his opinion as a contemporary G.P. Although he admits he’s not an expert in infectious diseases and can only make an assessment based on text books, the programme’s evidence and photographs he’s seen have convinced him the epidemic was smallpox.
The smallpox epidemic was quickly over-shadowed by the General Strike of 1913, the beginning of World War I in 1914 and the devastating Spanish Flu that began at the end of the war in 1918.
It is suggested in that had the statistics of the cases been reversed racially, the epidemic may have remained in New Zealand’s social memory longer.