Husband and wife doctors who looked after the sick during the influenza outbreak in Levin, Robert and Elizabeth Bryson with their children Bill and Mary.
Husband and wife doctors who looked after the sick during the influenza outbreak in Levin, Robert and Elizabeth Bryson with their children Bill and Mary.
As the world faces the challenge of containing the Covid-19 pandemic it is worth remembering the measures taken to deal with the influenza pandemic in 1918.
The first cases of influenza were reported in Levin on November 6, and in an advertisement in the Chronicle the next day the BoroughCouncil asked householders, picture hall proprietors, church authorities and all those in charge buildings in which the public congregated to use disinfectant freely around their buildings and grounds.
The town marked the Armistice on November 12 and then began to take things seriously.
The library was closed and the books disinfected; local banks disinfected banknotes before they were reissued.
Grave of John Alexander Trindle Thompson, a returned World War I soldier with another influenza victim, Florence Malcolm, daughter-in-law of the Horowhenua county chairman James Malcolm, behind.
There were no clearing sales, stock sales, no church services or Sunday school, shops were closed, not only because the owners were sick, but because there were no customers.
Banks were closed for a week, reopening on November 27. Stuart Mckenzie, the town's dentist, closed his practice until late November.
The three picture theatres closed for a month. The public baths closed, then the superintendent got sick. Territorial training was stopped until after the Christmas holidays.
The St Mary's Church women's sale of work was cancelled, delivery services were also cancelled, telegrams were delayed.
At the height of the epidemic the post office was maintaining its services despite the postmaster, his first assistant and the senior member of the counter staff being ill. A relieving officer from Feilding became ill, while at the telephone exchange Miss Gray was left to carry on single-handed with occasional assistance from the messenger boys.
Both Levin Clubs were closed. Bad weather contributed to the lack of labour from influenza victims causing shearing to be cancelled. Cows often went unmilked.
Nationwide no Standard 6 proficiency exams were held – in consultation with headmasters an average requirement was established.
The oldest person to die was Alexander Murray, 63, a farmer, who was a member of the Horowhenua County Council.
A temporary hospital was set up in the infant room at Levin School on November 16 to cater for the worst cases and patients from outlying areas to save the doctors long journeys, often a whole day for one or two patients.
There were 18 reported deaths in Levin in November, three in December. The youngest to die was three and the oldest 63.
Most of the deaths occurred in a 10-day period at the end of November. Instead of the elderly or very young as could be expected by such a deadly virus, it killed mainly adults between 20 and 45. In Levin 11 of the 21 reported fitted that criteria.
The first death in the temporary hospital was John Alexander Trindle Thompson (Trin) aged 28, a newly returned solider from service in World War I, where he was badly wounded.
Under the regulations issued in connection the epidemic military funerals were not permitted and the local returned soldiers were unable to honour him. He did have a squad in full uniform as pallbearers and his coffin was draped with the Union Jack.
Māori were banned from holding tangi. There was an order from the health department for prompt burial of bodies which went against the traditional Māori way of farewelling the dead. There was also a ban on travel to lessen the risk of spreading the virus to other districts.
Most victims of the pandemic died from pneumonia that caused prolonged fever and blood-streaked phlegm. Chest pains and shortness of breath were also warning signs, and temperatures were as high as 40 degC.
All the nurses and carers could do was sponge patients to reduce fever, replace fluids and administer aspirin.
The important advice was not to get up too soon. Those who did often relapsed and died. Local women contributed 'dainties' for the temporary hospital and home patients. These included beef tea, jellies and custards.
Fresh vegetables were in short supply and farmers were asked to help. Oranges and lemons were also in demand. The government ordered that the cost of oranges and lemons be kept to threepence each or supplies would be commandeered.
Two Levin doctors tended to the victims of the pandemic. Husband and wife team, Dr Robert Bryson and Dr Elizabeth Bryson were both struck down with the flu, luckily not at the same time.
Around the country the real heroes of the flu were the friends and neighbours who helped the stricken families, at great risk to themselves, sometimes sacrificing their lives helping others, and in Levin it was no exception.
It was all over quite suddenly. By late December most parts of New Zealand were over the worst of the flu.
What was it and where did it come from? Soldiers returning from World War I brought the flu back with them from a Europe rife with the virus and it spread through New Zealand by the railway trains they returned home on.
It is now believed by historians that the influenza pandemic that swept across Europe and to other countries from returning soldiers started in Kansas, in the United States.
Kansas was full of poultry and pig farms and swine flu, able to jump species from animals to humans, has been shown to be closest relative to the virus that caused the 1918 pandemic.
More than a million soldiers were sent to France from army camps in the United States in crowded troopships, taking the virus with them.
The 1918 influenza pandemic killed 50 million people worldwide, nearly three times the number of soldiers who died in World War I.
A total of 18,000 New Zealanders died in the four years of the war - 9000 New Zealanders died in the six weeks of the pandemic, most of them civilians.
New Zealand didn't quarantine incoming ships, unlike Australia where the passengers were taken ashore and waited two weeks in special camps. The strict rules were effective. Its final death toll by mid-1919 was 12,000 victims.
