Norman White, the first person to die of in the 1918 flu epidemic in Dannevirke. Photo / Supplied
After publication yesterday of the first part of an excerpt from a book by Hawke's Bay author Rob McDonald, entitled Dannevirke: The Early Years, on the 1918 flu epidemic, the identity of the first person to die in Dannevirke of the 1918 flu pandemic was revealed.
The book revealed that the first person to die in Dannevirke was a visitor to the town, a fit 31-year-old Hawke's Bay man who was a cricket and rugby representative.
Napier woman Sue Inglis contacted the Dannevirke News to say the 31-year-old visitor to Dannevirke who died from the flu was her grandfather Norman White, who was travelling home to Hastings after attending a show in Palmerston North with his wife Connie.
They both became very ill and were admitted to Dannevirke Hospital where Norman died.
Inglis says the family story is that her grandmother was so nearly dead that the death notice for her and Norman was placed in a newspaper. However, Inglis says she has not been able to verify this.
Connie recovered from the flu and lived until 1980.
While Norman's two brothers both served in World War I Norman did not. His father owned both the Northern British and the Hawke's Bay freezing works and Norman had to stay and work with his father in what was deemed an essential industry.
Part two of the excerpt continues and reveals the drastic measures taken to obtain medical assistance for the town.
The next crisis to be confronted was that of medical care. The doctors and most of the nurses were early victims of the epidemic.
The entire responsibility then fell on Matron Hopper, assisted by volunteer nurses from the community.
The pressure of numbers of serious cases at the hospital was such, however, that home visits were impossible and even telephoned appeals for advice had to remain unanswered.
At this stage Captain Armstrong and Mr G Wright, both men with some medical knowledge, stepped forward and provided a visiting service that was crucial in identifying those who needed hospitalisation and in providing care and advice to other sufferers.
When Miss Hopper herself finally collapsed on December 18 the situation became even more desperate.
Mr Bickford, chairman of the Hospital Board, telegraphed the Minister of Public Health.
"Can you send us a medical student? We have no medical man in the district from Waipukurau to Woodville. All are ill. No hospital superintendent and hospital is full and am arranging for temporary premises to contain 30 additional cases."
He also contacted the commander of the Awapuni Military Camp at Palmerston North.
"Can you send us eight orderlies for hospital requirements. Institution full. Additional accommodation being provided. No doctors in district, and shortage of nurses. Reply urgent."
The situation throughout the rest of the country was so desperate, however, that little help could be offered.
Four orderlies were provided and a medical student from Dunedin arrived four days later. They provided help until they also went down with the flu.
Meanwhile the community fought on as best it could.
The Men's and Women's Committees continued their work. Drivers made themselves available to assist in the distribution of food, transport of patients and visits to outlying districts.
Volunteer nurses and kitchen staff ran the hospital and even the Boy Scouts provided an errand running, telephone-answering service.
As these workers in turn succumbed to the flu, they were replaced by others. Medicines quickly sold out and the chemists could provide no more.
Oranges and lemons were in great demand also. These were commandeered or donated to the Food Department for distribution to those most in need. Such was the demand for these that the arrival of a box of oranges in the town was important news.
Over 80 per cent of the population succumbed at some stage during these four weeks and most activity in the town quickly ground to a halt.
Businesses, both large and small, closed as owners and workers were laid up.
At the railway station only the stationmaster himself was the unaffected. He had to maintain services with a skeleton staff of men from outside the district.
It was the same at the Post Office. At one stage only five out of 22 staff were working, and extra staff had to be borrowed from Palmerston North and Feilding to maintain the basic services.
Bread supplies were threatened when the town's two bakers and all their assistants were incapacitated.
The Chamber of Commerce quickly took action and procured the services of bakers from Ormondville and Palmerston North but for a few days bread was almost unobtainable.
Government regulations aimed at eliminating large concentrations of people also had their effect with schools, theatres, hotels and a variety of other places being closed.
There was so little traffic in the town that the most vivid recollection of one early resident was of seeing grass vigorously growing in the roads.
With Dannevirke so severely affected the surrounding rural districts were largely left to fend for themselves.
Although the epidemic was just as widespread as in Dannevirke itself there were fewer severe cases and relatively few deaths.
In spite of this there were still large problems to overcome, particularly in the dairy farming districts.
Cows had to be milked, calves and pigs fed, milk transported to the factory, cans washed, machines cleaned, meals cooked and the sick attended to.
As well, the factories had to be kept running if the milk was not to be wasted.
These relenting daily demands were only met because of the assistance neighbours rendered to one another.
Typically, those who had not yet been affected by the flu would rise at dawn to milk their own and their neighbours' cows and still be working at nine in the evening.
Again, as in town, women played a key role in visiting and finding out where assistance as needed as well as caring for the sick.
It was a proud claim that all the district's dairy factories kept going during the epidemic, unlike in some other regions. This was only possible because of the assistance of volunteers and the farmers themselves.
By November 26 the height of the epidemic had passed. There were still many deaths to come as serious cases succumbed but relatively few new cases were being reported.
Businesses started to reopen as owners and staff recovered.
Government restrictions were gradually lifted and hairdressers, churches, tearooms and hotels re-opened. (Schools and theatres remained closed).
In late November and early December, the demand for food from the Food Depot actually increased as those patients who moved into the recuperation stage began to eat again but this gradually dropped, and the depot was finally closed on December 11.
The hospital was now also starting to empty out. The epidemic was over.
Canvassing of the town by the men's committee was no longer necessary and its effort now went into allocating financial assistance to badly affected families.
The flu epidemic was devastating, especially given the timing of its arrival.
After four wearying years of grinding efforts and tragic loss, victory in the war had been won, peace had arrived, death and destruction was at an end. And then this!
For its size Dannevirke was one of the hardest hit areas in New Zealand. It was certainly by far the worst affected area in Hawke's Bay.
In one month, there were 75 deaths and almost 100 children lost one or both parents. It was not just the numbers but the careful cropping of those in their 20s, 30s and 40s. It was this group, particularly the men, who had been culled hardest in the previous four years and it was this group who had always provided the energy and vitality that had driven Dannevirke's developments. They could ill afford to be lost.
The dreary weather that had beset the town throughout the epidemic and added to the general depression lifted in December and life in the town seemed to quickly return to its normal patterns.
The private costs for many had been devastating but publicly at least, the town put the disaster behind it and it was rarely referred to again.