The influenza pandemic
- When
- October 1918 – December 1918
- Reach
- Nationwide
About 9,000 people died in two months — roughly half as many as died in four years of war. Māori died at more than seven times the Pākehā rate.
The second wave arrived as the war ended, and killed healthy adults in their twenties and thirties. Schools and halls became hospitals, whole families died, and in some Māori communities the losses were catastrophic — around 2,500 Māori deaths from a population of 51,000. Inhalation chambers, quarantine and a hurried emergency response could not keep pace. It was the deadliest event in New Zealand history by a wide margin.
Regions affected
Sources
Written for this project from these references rather than copied from them. Follow a link to check the account against the original.
Related
The great Māori urban migration
Māori went from about 25 percent urban in 1945 to nearly 80 percent by 1975 — one of the fastest urbanisations recorded anywhere.
The 1953–54 royal tour
Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit New Zealand. An estimated three in four New Zealanders saw her in person.
Rogernomics — the economy is deregulated
A Labour government floated the dollar, removed farm subsidies and tariffs, and sold state assets — the fastest liberalisation in the developed world.
Te reo Māori becomes an official language
Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori
Te reo Māori gained official status and the right to be spoken in court, fifteen years after the language petition and following a Waitangi Tribunal finding that it was a taonga.