The steamship Talune at the Napier
breakwater in 1908. Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library Reference
1. The Influenza was not aimed at Apia (once a Samoan-British allied area), as it was an indiscriminate epidemic that was wide-spread in the west long before it reached Western Samoa. And it was certainly New Zealand administration incompetence who were at fault, and who were in-danger themselves without knowing it. The Apia area had been very connected to the English LMS church and signed a Treaty-pact agreement with Britain in 1838 on the HMS Conway with representative Captain Bethune. The respected G. Pritchard became Matai' ranked in Western Samoa then stood as British Consul. A small Samoan-British trade-port was established in Apia in 1850 and used mostly by importers, resuppliers, and whalers. The Germans arrived in 1855 (JC Godeffroy & Sohn) and began trade with other Western Samoan districts not allied to the US.Unionists or the British Imperials.
As time passed, Western Samoa entitlement called for War competing for the Papa' combined King titles for the rank of "Tafa ifa", a title of High-King rank. In 1887, King Malieatoa Tupua Tamasese Titimaea with German military assistance attacked Samoans allied to Britain who also claimed the Kingly rank of Malietoa. The German representative Weber sent delegate Eugen Brandeis to act as Premier (Prime Minister) under King Tupua Tamasese.
The only Samoan entitled candidates with enough rival influence were King Malietoa Laupepe and King Tui Atua Mata 'afa Iosefo. In March 1889, Apia was struck with a massive hurricane that wiped out six European anchored military vessels posturing for territorial claims. A whole fleet was lost with some unsure if Samoan parties had used the storm as cover to wipe out the vessels.
After the first decade of the 1900s neutral parties of Samoans became involved in a growing "Mau Movement", a Socialist-Populist movement that worked to push out all foreign schemes that had helped in creating civil unrest during the late 1800s. Australia joined in on Democratic-Socialist movements in the 1900s. In 1914, a New Zealand force under British orders attacked German centers in Western Samoa, NZ military docked at port through their Apia allies, and so began the first World War in the Pacific, resulting that year 1914 November 1st in a counter-attack by the German Crown at "The Battle of Coronel" in the Pacific.
In 1918, the SS. Talune ported in Apia and the British-New Zealand ship was responsible for infecting "their own Samoan allies", at the Samoan-British allied Apia docking areas. The 1/5th population that is so often mentioned, that were infected, were 'British allied Samoans'. The history is really one of embarrassment and if researching those times the circumstances worsen by New Zealand administration incompetence being that in November that very same month in 1918, the influenza spread more in Northern New Zealand reaching down to Christ Church. New Zealand was hit 2 times in 2 months by the same Influenza, one spread before SS. Talune had left to Samoa killing a few thousand, then again with over 8000-18,000 reported deaths in the second infection wave known as "Black November". In the Featherston Camp (Wairarapa New Zealand) over 3,220 British NZ Colonial troops were reported infected and deathly ill, with Auckland NZ being the first hit at Narrow Neck Camp. As New Zealand killed their own areas of support Samoan Mau Socialists spread into Auckland NZ 1920s-1930s as a result of the disaster, beginning campaigns with the NZ Labour Party.
"New Zealand ships mostly only ported at their Allied Samoan regions and did not without permissions port in German, French, or USA allied areas. Eastern Samoa sent medical help being untouched by the famine. The estimate of 1/5th of the population, not the whole of the Samoan population, but 1/5th of that area.. but, it was a hard enough hit to Apia to deplete their British supported efforts. Death tolls were not kept record and a better estimate has been put forth as 1000 infected. NZ Coconet Tv in 2018 has newly pushed the toll to 27% infected and leaving out important facts about the rest of the Influenza history"
2. The sickness was not the "Spanish Flu". The name of the Flu is extremely misleading as to it's origins and investigations are broad and by many, and blame easily shifted, and so a single location pinpointed is avoided, but results allowed an understanding to the causes being that there were long standing unsanitary conditions in western Europe, mainly from Britain. Influenza being only one of many epidemics that reached Australia in the mid to later 1800s. French Allied Eastern Polynesia never reported a major Influenza Pandemic and neither did American Samoa (Eastern Samoa), or Pacific nations allied to Germany.
Another part of this history that is not mentioned in New Zealand History are the other places that were infected. The Eastern parts of the USA (New York) that were connected to British Immigration and European Trade lay the heaviest numbers lost around that era (25% US. Population according to the National Archives).
"Yes, the same Influenza which eventually made it to Australian ports from Britain, then to New Zealand, hit the Eastern coast of the USA first and killed at least a few hundred thousand immigrant British in the New York and Maine regions. This history of Western Samoa is linked and if one is going tell that part of history, the whole history should be shared"
Since the 1850s British Immigration spread to southern parts of Easterm Australia (New South Wales and Tasmania) and a wave of Epidemic Smallpox (or chickenpox), Measles epidemic in 1867, The Scarlet Fever epidemic of the 1870s, a second Smallpox Epidemic in 1881 to 1882, epidemic Typhus, cases of sexually transmitted diseases (European Venereal Diseases), and then a sweep of Influenza starting off in the 1890's. In the early 1900s during the World Wars came a number of AIDS cases from Europe to Australia, and then more Influenza. The Influenza epidemic of 1914-1918 in Europe killed an estimated 20 Million people (from Europe, USA, Eastern Australia, and New Zealand). The diseases that made it to New Zealand came through Eastern Australia and were brought in with trade, mail, and military supply shipments from Britain.
3. In todays world 2020s, the internet has linked the USA with many nations, and US. Americans should understand that NZ History and Imperial History or academics in general are not the same everywhere. For example the British do not teach about 'The Revolutionary War in the USA' and many parts of British history are cherry picked topics in the past before the World Wars supporting King and country that leave out much related information. In New Zealand before the 1990s they were teaching that the British won the World Wars, mentioning less of the United States and it's role in helping rescue France and an invaded Britain and who do not teach that Imperialism lost on the world stage but rely on the USA for national defense in the Asia Pacific.
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Posted in: A.P.I. A. Studies
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