Perspective Epidemics and pandemics – Archivist Jane Teal
A t 1pm, sometime in May 2020. Would the Prime Minister and the Director-General of Health provide the news in their daily briefing that we had all been waiting for – the end of lockdown? A lockdown created by the widespread existence of a virus that had spread throughout the world and that New Zealand was endeavouring to keep outside its borders. However, given the long list of epidemics and pandemics that have been part of the country’s history, it is not surprising that there is evidence that Christ’s College has weathered closures before. 1 There is no written evidence that can point specifically to infectious diseases in the early days of College. The Board Minutes and Jacobs’ History of the College 2 are silent on the subject and the Attendance and Behaviour Book, which contains the roll, does not begin until October 1856, so there is no possibility of identifying whether the school was affected by the 1852–53 flu epidemic. There are multiple absences in the first term of 1858, but their cause is unknown. 3 Despite there being no mention in the Board Minutes
that the College was closed in 1863 because of a typhoid outbreak, the local newspaper quotes a report from Otago that “a very severe form of typhoid has broken out in Christchurch College”, and that the reporter who had sons there had taken them away in consequence of the prevalence of the disease in question. There is certainly a very large number of boys absent in April 1863. 4 It is not until 1873 that there is any mention in the Board Minutes of the health of individuals, when there is a reference to “the boy Cargill is suffering from diphtheria”. 5 Diphtheria was widespread in Canterbury at the time and John Jones Cargill (374) in the Upper Fourth Form had caught it. The Board consulted Doctors Turnbull and Powell and took their advice – there was no reason to telegraph his parents in Dunedin, there was no justification in closing the school and they would leave isolation and general management to Mr Corfe. 6 Given that diphtheria is transmitted by respiratory droplets, Cargill must have been in close contact with someone else and had the ability to pass it on to others. In 1873, this information was unknown, so in line with prevailing beliefs that that disease was the consequence of unsanitary
1 A timeline of epidemics in New Zealand 1817–2020. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand . http://www.teara.govt.nz 2 Jacobs, H. 1950. Historical Notes Introduction reprinted with corrections and additions from the School List 1921. The School List of Christ’s College . From 1850 to 1950 pp32-42. 3 Attendance and Behaviour Book 1856–1866, Christ’s College Archives. 4 Press 5 May 1863; Attendance and Behaviour Book 1852–1866. The boys mentioned appear to be William Lambert (166) and Sydney Chown Lambert (167), son of William Lambert of Dunedin. The death of Francis Henry Cotterill (75), reported in the Lyttelton Times 6 May 1863, cannot be confirmed as part of this outbreak without a death certificate. 5 Christ’s College Board Minutes 24 June 1873. 6 Christ’s College Board Minutes, Christ’s College 24 June 1873.
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