NCEA Level 1 · Year 11 · History · 2 minutes

The 1918 flu pandemic in New Zealand

A deadly second wave, unequal losses, and a new Health Act.

Key terms

Pandemic
A disease that spreads worldwide.
Death rate
The number of deaths per thousand people, used by historians to compare groups.
Quarantine
Keeping people or ships that may carry disease apart from others; American Samoa's strict quarantine kept the flu out.
Royal commission
A formal inquiry that, after the pandemic, called for a new public health law.
Health Act 1920
The law that set up a Board of Health and a reorganised Department of Health, shaping public health for decades.

Transcript

0:00

November, nineteen eighteen. The First World War is ending, and New Zealanders crowd the streets to celebrate. But those crowds are helping something spread. A deadly flu.

0:12

This was a pandemic: a disease spreading worldwide. Its deadly second wave reached Auckland in mid October, and by November it had swept the country. Some schools became emergency hospitals. People queued at inhalation chambers to breathe a zinc spray. It was medically useless.

0:34

In less than two months, the second wave killed about nine thousand people. That's around half as many New Zealanders as died in four years of war.

0:46

But death did not fall evenly. Historians compare death rates: deaths per thousand people. Māori died at around seven to eight times the rate of Pākehā. Historians point to poorer housing and food, less access to doctors, and isolation, which may have meant less immunity.

1:08

The worst losses were in Samoa, then governed by New Zealand. On the seventh of November, the ship Talune arrived at Apia from Auckland with sick people on board. New Zealand's administration did not quarantine it. About eight and a half thousand Samoans died, more than one in five people. In nearby American Samoa, strict quarantine kept the flu out. In two thousand and two, New Zealand formally apologised.

1:37

Afterwards, a royal commission called for a new law: the Health Act of nineteen twenty. It set up a Board of Health and a reorganised Department of Health, shaping public health for the next forty years. Historian Geoffrey Rice called it the pandemic's most useful legacy.

1:55

So, to recap. One: in late nineteen eighteen, a deadly second wave killed about nine thousand New Zealanders. Two: Māori died at far higher rates, linked to living conditions and access to care, while Samoa lost more than one in five people after a ship wasn't quarantined. Three: the Health Act of nineteen twenty reshaped public health.

Sources

Every fact in the video, and where it comes from.

  1. 1
    nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/1918-influenza-pandemic/death-rates
    • The second wave of the 1918 influenza epidemic killed about 9000 people in less than two months (NZHistory wording).
    • The same NZHistory page contrasts this with more than 18,000 New Zealand soldiers who died over four years of war (so about half).
  2. 2
    nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/1918-influenza-pandemic/begins
    • The first New Zealand cases of the second wave appeared in Auckland in mid-October 1918; the flu spread widely in October, peaked in November and was over by December.
  3. 3
    nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/armistice-day-and-spread-influenza
    • Armistice celebrations (11-12 November 1918) drew large crowds and processions in many towns, which helped spread influenza.
  4. 4
    nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/1918-influenza-pandemic/response
    • Inhalation chambers sprayed zinc sulphate; though 'medically useless', it was the only approved preventative known to the Public Health Department.
  5. 5
    kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/photos/id/31106
    • Schools were turned into temporary hospitals, e.g. Northcote School, Auckland, 1918.
  6. 6
    nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/influenza-pandemic-1918/maori-and-the-…
    • Māori death rate was more than eight times that of Europeans/Pākehā (nearly 50 per 1000, NZHistory death-rates page and Te Ara); registered rate 42.3 per 1000, about seven times (NZHistory Māori page; Wilson et al. 2012: 7.3 times, deaths under-registered). European rate 5.8 per 1000.
    • Lower standards of housing, clothing and nourishment put Māori at greater risk; Geoffrey Rice suggests lower immunity due to isolation; many Māori communities had little medical help.
  7. 7
    wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/18/1/11-0035_article
    • Māori death rate was more than eight times that of Europeans/Pākehā (nearly 50 per 1000, NZHistory death-rates page and Te Ara); registered rate 42.3 per 1000, about seven times (NZHistory Māori page; Wilson et al. 2012: 7.3 times, deaths under-registered). European rate 5.8 per 1000.
  8. 8
    teara.govt.nz/en/death-rates-and-life-expectancy/page-4
    • Māori death rate was more than eight times that of Europeans/Pākehā (nearly 50 per 1000, NZHistory death-rates page and Te Ara); registered rate 42.3 per 1000, about seven times (NZHistory Māori page; Wilson et al. 2012: 7.3 times, deaths under-registered). European rate 5.8 per 1000.
  9. 9
    nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/1918-influenza-pandemic/samoa
    • Samoa was administered by New Zealand; the SS Talune arrived at Apia from Auckland on 7 November 1918 carrying influenza and was not quarantined.
    • About 8500 Samoans died, 22% of the population.
  10. 10
    teara.govt.nz/en/pacific-islands-and-new-zealand/page-4
    • The epidemic did not spread to American Samoa, where effective quarantine rules were observed.
  11. 11
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Talune
    • In 2002 Prime Minister Helen Clark formally apologised to Samoa, including for the administration's failure to stop the 1918 influenza.
    • Talune arrived at Apia 7 November 1918 with sick crew and Fijian labourers aboard; granted pratique after a cursory examination; ~8500 deaths (22%); no influenza deaths in American Samoa after Governor Poyer's strict quarantine; NZ Government apology at a state luncheon in Apia, June 2002.
  12. 12
    nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/1918-influenza-pandemic/aftermath
    • The government set up a royal commission; one recommendation was a new Health Act; Geoffrey Rice calls the Health Act 1920 'the most useful legacy of the 1918 influenza pandemic'.
  13. 13
    teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3m39/makgill-robert-haldane
    • The Health Act 1920 created a Board of Health and the Department became the Department of Health; it set the framework of New Zealand's public health system for about 40 years.

Image and sound credits

  • Armistice telegram, 12 Nov 1918; Coromandel Hospital Board influenza notice; inhalator; volunteer staff at Northcote; Omaio Native School report; Ngāti Whātua District Māori Council by-laws; Samoa influenza file: Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, CC BY 2.0
  • Armistice Day celebrations, the Octagon and Municipal Chambers, Dunedin, 1918: Dunedin City Council Archives, Public Domain Mark
  • Temporary flu epidemic hospital, Northcote School; inhalation chamber, Auckland, 1918 (Auckland Weekly News); SS Talune (Auckland Weekly News, 1899): Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, no known copyright restrictions
  • Apia Harbour, Samoa (Skerman family album); Certificate of Thanks for influenza workers, Otago Hospital and Charitable Aid Board: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, no known copyright restrictions
  • Map data: Natural Earth (public domain)
  • Paper textures: ambientCG (CC0) · Torn paper edges generated with AI
  • Sound effects: Freesound contributors (CC0)
  • Music: generated with ACE-Step · Voice: Gemini TTS

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