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Black November: The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand
Black November: The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand by Geoffrey W. Rice
Reviewed by Dorothy - 28/04/06
The threat of bird flu hangs over the world and we have no idea when or whether it will hit the New Zealand community. We are warned that we should be prepared, but we cannot be given specific guidelines because the nature of the threat is not specific.
A detailed investigation of the impact on the New Zealand community of the 1918 Pandemic is most timely reading for people everywhere living under the threat of another pandemic. Geoffrey Rice’s book, Black November: The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand, gives a detailed account of how the 1918 flu impacted on individual communities in the country. The final chapter, “Influenza after 1918”, is of particular relevance to the present situation, outlining influenza occurrences and research and commenting on the likely outcome of a pandemic in this country. It includes advice on hygiene and stresses the importance of developing community networks which will be of vital importance if hospital resources are over-stretched.
Black November: The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand by Geoffrey W. Rice
New publication an expansion of an earlier volume
Black November was first published in 1988, Thanks to the author’s tireless research the 2005 publication is brought up to date with three new chapters, fifty first-hand eyewitness accounts, and over 200 photographs and cartoons, many of which had not been published previously.
Taumarunui’s suffering inspires research
Professor Rice was told in 1977 about the appalling sights witnessed by his father during the 1918 epidemic in the small timber and railway town of Taumarunui in the middle of the North Island. His father was nine years old in1918 and the time of the epidemic was his most powerful memory from his childhood. He recalled lighting fires in the morning in the houses where the adults were ill and finding a woman asleep in bed beside the body of her husband blackened in death.
His first publication about the 1918 flu epidemic was published in the New Zealand Journal of History in 1979. The scant number of references to the epidemic in history books impelled him to research and write about the epidemic which had been such a traumatic experience in his father’s life. The research was centred on Christchurch death certificates, and was the first published research based on such evidence.
After its publication Professor Rice was interviewed for an article in the newspaper and its publication brought a flood of letters and phone calls over the summer of 1979/80. He visited all the larger retirement homes in Christchurch and recorded people’s memories.
After being advised that to sell on the New Zealand market his book must cover the whole country and include what happened to Maori as well as Pakeha he was only temporarily deterred by the size of the task.
As it was before the days of laptops he recorded all the needed information by hand on index cards. Gathering together all the information from the death certificates, newspapers and interviews took a year and resulted in a large volume. A small printing of a reduced volume, with chapters only about the main centres, produced Black November in 1988.
New chapters were added at the beginning and the end and additional illustrations and eye witness accounts were inserted in the text of Black November1988, and Black November: The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand was published by Canterbury University Press in November 2005.
Topic of vital importance
In the introduction Professor Rice assesses the importance of the topic. “It is a story worth telling because it provides us with a unique snapshot of New Zealand society at the close of an unprecedented war effort trying to grapple with an unprecedented civil emergency. In most New Zealand towns and cities ordinary public life was suspended for two or three weeks at the height of the flu epidemic in November 1918.”
Use of sulphate sprayer
In the 1990s I interviewed for NZine articles a number of older people, asking them about their early years. The flu epidemic and the use of sulphur as a protective measure featured largely in their memories, so I was keen to read this book and not deterred by its 300+ pages.
The new volume telling this story captured my interest at first sight with the photograph on the cover. It shows a group with a sulphate sprayer at the Health Department offices in Auckland early in November 1918.
Significant preface
Inside the front and back cover is a copy of some death notices from the Weekly Press – a powerful reminder of the heavy death toll from the epidemic. Then comes the Preface, and I strongly recommend you not to pass this over as “just a preface” as it tells the story of the flu in Taumarunui and makes compelling reading.
History of influenza epidemics
The first chapter on the history of influenza epidemics gives a clear picture of people’s experience of such epidemics and explains the sources of the widely held ideas about such illness and how patients should be cared for. It makes it easier to understand the attitudes and practices common in 1918 and should silence harsh criticism of the mistakes that were made.
The Great War and the Great Flu
“The Great War and the Great Flu”, the new second chapter, covers the relevant events of the Great War, sanitation regulations at the war front, the movement of troops, the outbreak of cerebro-spinal fever and influenza in 1915 at Trentham camp in New Zealand, and of influenza in the United States, the movement of American troops taking the flu to Europe for the first mild wave in the middle of 1918. With an enormous amount of wartime shipping, the movement of troops and the rapid railways moving people across countries the second wave of deadly influenza spread rapidly through both the northern and the southern hemisphere in the last few months of 1918. The movement of so many men in the war certainly contributed to the spread of the flu.
Why did the nature of the flu suddenly change?
The sudden change in the nature of the influenza and its impact on such wide areas have puzzled epidemiologists ever since, and they have offered a number of theories including the possibility that the widespread use of gas in Europe during the War was one cause of the development of the more severe form of the flu. These theories are outlined and discussed in chapter 2.
Real life accounts of people coping
From then on the main theme of the next five chapters is how people coped with the problems caused by the pandemic – nursing patients and coping during an unprecedented civil emergency. There is a systematic coverage of the cities, moving south from Auckland where the epidemic began, followed by rural and then Maori communities. These are not just presentations of statistics and facts, but moving stories made more real by first hand accounts and photographs and authenticated by statistics in the appendix.
Origins and diffusion of the flu
The author then discusses the possible origins and diffusion of the flu, and the impact of the docking and disembarking of the patients and other passengers on board the Niagara,. The next two chapters include an investigation into patterns of influenza throughout New Zealand and a discussion about the victims – their age and sex, their health before they developed the flu, their socio-economic position, their occupation, possible areas of contact ….
Influenza after 1918
The last chapter, “Influenza after 1918”, includes comments on any outbreaks of influenza, research by virologists and important lessons to be learnt from the past. Of major significance is the development of neighbourhood communities as much nursing has to be done in the homes when the hospitals are full. Advice on nursing techniques must be taken seriously as must strict observance of hygiene precautions. Reserve stocks of water, food and batteries must be kept up to date and the purchase and use of appropriate face masks are strongly recommended.
I strongly recommend that you read this well written and interesting book. It is useful and particularly relevant as the threat of a pandemic hangs over us.
Reviewed by Dorothy - 28/04/06
The threat of bird flu hangs over the world and we have no idea when or whether it will hit the New Zealand community. We are warned that we should be prepared, but we cannot be given specific guidelines because the nature of the threat is not specific.
A detailed investigation of the impact on the New Zealand community of the 1918 Pandemic is most timely reading for people everywhere living under the threat of another pandemic. Geoffrey Rice’s book, Black November: The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand, gives a detailed account of how the 1918 flu impacted on individual communities in the country. The final chapter, “Influenza after 1918”, is of particular relevance to the present situation, outlining influenza occurrences and research and commenting on the likely outcome of a pandemic in this country. It includes advice on hygiene and stresses the importance of developing community networks which will be of vital importance if hospital resources are over-stretched.
Black November: The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand by Geoffrey W. Rice
New publication an expansion of an earlier volume
Black November was first published in 1988, Thanks to the author’s tireless research the 2005 publication is brought up to date with three new chapters, fifty first-hand eyewitness accounts, and over 200 photographs and cartoons, many of which had not been published previously.
Taumarunui’s suffering inspires research
Professor Rice was told in 1977 about the appalling sights witnessed by his father during the 1918 epidemic in the small timber and railway town of Taumarunui in the middle of the North Island. His father was nine years old in1918 and the time of the epidemic was his most powerful memory from his childhood. He recalled lighting fires in the morning in the houses where the adults were ill and finding a woman asleep in bed beside the body of her husband blackened in death.
His first publication about the 1918 flu epidemic was published in the New Zealand Journal of History in 1979. The scant number of references to the epidemic in history books impelled him to research and write about the epidemic which had been such a traumatic experience in his father’s life. The research was centred on Christchurch death certificates, and was the first published research based on such evidence.
After its publication Professor Rice was interviewed for an article in the newspaper and its publication brought a flood of letters and phone calls over the summer of 1979/80. He visited all the larger retirement homes in Christchurch and recorded people’s memories.
After being advised that to sell on the New Zealand market his book must cover the whole country and include what happened to Maori as well as Pakeha he was only temporarily deterred by the size of the task.
As it was before the days of laptops he recorded all the needed information by hand on index cards. Gathering together all the information from the death certificates, newspapers and interviews took a year and resulted in a large volume. A small printing of a reduced volume, with chapters only about the main centres, produced Black November in 1988.
New chapters were added at the beginning and the end and additional illustrations and eye witness accounts were inserted in the text of Black November1988, and Black November: The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand was published by Canterbury University Press in November 2005.
Topic of vital importance
In the introduction Professor Rice assesses the importance of the topic. “It is a story worth telling because it provides us with a unique snapshot of New Zealand society at the close of an unprecedented war effort trying to grapple with an unprecedented civil emergency. In most New Zealand towns and cities ordinary public life was suspended for two or three weeks at the height of the flu epidemic in November 1918.”
Use of sulphate sprayer
In the 1990s I interviewed for NZine articles a number of older people, asking them about their early years. The flu epidemic and the use of sulphur as a protective measure featured largely in their memories, so I was keen to read this book and not deterred by its 300+ pages.
The new volume telling this story captured my interest at first sight with the photograph on the cover. It shows a group with a sulphate sprayer at the Health Department offices in Auckland early in November 1918.
Significant preface
Inside the front and back cover is a copy of some death notices from the Weekly Press – a powerful reminder of the heavy death toll from the epidemic. Then comes the Preface, and I strongly recommend you not to pass this over as “just a preface” as it tells the story of the flu in Taumarunui and makes compelling reading.
History of influenza epidemics
The first chapter on the history of influenza epidemics gives a clear picture of people’s experience of such epidemics and explains the sources of the widely held ideas about such illness and how patients should be cared for. It makes it easier to understand the attitudes and practices common in 1918 and should silence harsh criticism of the mistakes that were made.
The Great War and the Great Flu
“The Great War and the Great Flu”, the new second chapter, covers the relevant events of the Great War, sanitation regulations at the war front, the movement of troops, the outbreak of cerebro-spinal fever and influenza in 1915 at Trentham camp in New Zealand, and of influenza in the United States, the movement of American troops taking the flu to Europe for the first mild wave in the middle of 1918. With an enormous amount of wartime shipping, the movement of troops and the rapid railways moving people across countries the second wave of deadly influenza spread rapidly through both the northern and the southern hemisphere in the last few months of 1918. The movement of so many men in the war certainly contributed to the spread of the flu.
Why did the nature of the flu suddenly change?
The sudden change in the nature of the influenza and its impact on such wide areas have puzzled epidemiologists ever since, and they have offered a number of theories including the possibility that the widespread use of gas in Europe during the War was one cause of the development of the more severe form of the flu. These theories are outlined and discussed in chapter 2.
Real life accounts of people coping
From then on the main theme of the next five chapters is how people coped with the problems caused by the pandemic – nursing patients and coping during an unprecedented civil emergency. There is a systematic coverage of the cities, moving south from Auckland where the epidemic began, followed by rural and then Maori communities. These are not just presentations of statistics and facts, but moving stories made more real by first hand accounts and photographs and authenticated by statistics in the appendix.
Origins and diffusion of the flu
The author then discusses the possible origins and diffusion of the flu, and the impact of the docking and disembarking of the patients and other passengers on board the Niagara,. The next two chapters include an investigation into patterns of influenza throughout New Zealand and a discussion about the victims – their age and sex, their health before they developed the flu, their socio-economic position, their occupation, possible areas of contact ….
Influenza after 1918
The last chapter, “Influenza after 1918”, includes comments on any outbreaks of influenza, research by virologists and important lessons to be learnt from the past. Of major significance is the development of neighbourhood communities as much nursing has to be done in the homes when the hospitals are full. Advice on nursing techniques must be taken seriously as must strict observance of hygiene precautions. Reserve stocks of water, food and batteries must be kept up to date and the purchase and use of appropriate face masks are strongly recommended.
I strongly recommend that you read this well written and interesting book. It is useful and particularly relevant as the threat of a pandemic hangs over us.