Shame and Response

When in November 1904 three cases of typhoid were reported from Kaponga to the relevant local authority, the Waimate Road Board, it elegraphed the Health Department and Dr Thomas Valintine, Assistant Chief Health Officer, descended urgently on the town. Valintine had entegrated from England as a young man, spent a decade as a general pratitioner in Inglewood and then in 1902 joined the Department of Health (be served as its head 1920–30). It was therefore with a good understanding of small-town Taranaki that on 25 November he met the Road Board to report on his thorough 2 ½-day investigation. He had not been able to pin down the exact source of the infection, but had found the township's sanitation quite unsatisfactory and taken immediate measures to deal with the worst abuses. Since he remarked that Kaponga ‘is not worse than smaller towns in the colony’ this description must be typical of general frontier conditions resulting from hasty, unregulated building and careless habits.

The excreta pits are a menace to public health, as they drain into the wells, and the cardinal principles in dealing with the sanitation of the town are to fill up all excreta pits and cess pools. One or two premises were in a bad condition; and one especially was in a grossly insanitary state, there being two large excreta pits and a cess pool near the well…. He had ordered the well … to be filled in, and the excreta pits emptied, lime put in, and then filled in, and given 24 hours' notice to complete other improvements. About 20 requisitions had been served on occupiers of other premises to effect improvements, principally cleaning up yards and filling in excreta pits, etc. In the hotel premises, new privies and closets have to be introduced, with the pan system, within seven days. It will be necessary for the night soil to be removed and proper receptacles placed in each closet in town…. The size of the sections in town would not allow of the disposal of night soil on same … it was ridiculous to crowd a lot of small buildings on small areas. In some cases as many as six different places were built on a half-acre. Even if each house in Kaponga were built on an eighth of an acre of land, they could be independent of any drainage scheme, but they are too huddled together…. removing the night soil … would prove a clumsy scheme in many cases, as there were no rights of way at certain buildings to the rear and the soil would require to be taken through the house.⁷

Even at the new Coffee Palace drainage arrangements were unsatisfactory, ‘the sewage having become blocked up and backed under the building’.

Valintine went on to describe longer-term improvements that would put the place on a sound footing. There was no town in New Zealand with more natural advantages for drainage purposes. The Kaponga Dairy Factory could supply water cheaply and 40 or 50 chains of ordinary drainpipes with a good fall would deal with the most urgent drainage. He suggested that page 211 they raise a loan and strike a rate under the 1903 Public Health Act. The board had full power to enact urgently needed sanitary and building by laws (which he offered to draft to save expense). It should also establish a rubbish reserve. In the discussion that followed one board member made the important suggestion that Kaponga become a town district. It was decided to consult an engineer on the cost of a water and drainage scheme for Kaponga.

In mid-December about 50 citizens met with a Road Board deputation consisting of its chairman, T. A. Bridge, and William Swadling, to hear and discuss the engineer's report. His estimate for the scheme was under £900, but when it emerged that the extra rates on the affected township sections would meet only about a quarter of the annual interest and upkeep expenses there was general opposition to the proposal. Swadling regretted that no farmers were present as they would have to find most of the rate, and seconded plumber Philip Larritt's motion rejecting the scheme. The one strong voice for the scheme was F.W. Wilkie's. He held that no town in New Zealand could get a cheaper scheme. It would make Kaponga a thoroughly clean and up-to-date place, bring down fire insurance rates and stimulate local business.

At its March 1905 meeting the Waimate Road Board discussed a letter from Dr Valintine saying he considered the stand taken by their northern members (one of whom was William Swadling) to be unreasonable, and reminding them that as the local authority responsible for Kaponga's sanitation they had promised to render the department all assistance. He now asked them to proceed without delay with a much smaller scheme involving a drain down Eltham Road to the Kaupokonui from Wilkie's Coffee Palace and Campbell's Commercial Hotel. Wilkie and Campbell had each promised to meet one-third of the cost and he requested that the board meet the remaining third, since the drain would be a public one that other householders could be connected to. William Swadling said the board should see that the sanitary officer compelled the two proprietors concerned to pay half the cost each and made a personal attack on Wilkie for ‘crawling to the Health Officer’. The board resolved to leave the matter to the new town board that Kaponga was seeking. In the Star of 18 March Wilkie complained of Swadling ‘attacking me in his usual malevolent manner’, and absolutely denied asking any favours of the Health Department. He had merely replied to a letter from Valintine, offering to pay whatever was considered fair.

The matter had got off to a bad start, with bad blood between two of Kaponga's most prominent pioneer citizens. It proceeded to develop as a long saga of delay, misunderstanding, discord, legal and administrative confusion, and conflicting interests. For nearly two years, until overwhelmed by brutal facts, Kaponga's citizens failed to front up to the situation. Only after over seven years of confusion and delay was a water and drainage system completed. The typhoid years saw none of Kaponga's page 212

First Kaponga Town Board, 1905. Standing: Frederick Gapper, Charles Betts. Seated: Robert
Law, William Swadling (chairman), Robert Campbell

finest hours, but since the issue acted as a catalyst in the reshaping of local structures and alignments we will outline developments while avoiding the procedural complexities involved. An early and important outcome was the setting up of the Kaponga Town Board. A petition ‘signed almost unanimously’⁸ was forwarded to the Colonial Secretary by early March 1905, the Town District was gazetted on 13 July and the first board elected on 8 August. From a field of nine the following were successful:

William Swadling, farmer	38
Robert Law, farmer	33
Frederick Gapper, storekeeper	32
Robert Campbell,* publican	29
Charles Betts,* seed merchant	26

John Robertson, builder, attracted 19 votes and Alfred Guy, blacksmith, 10. ‘Our Own’ (Star, 9/8/05) commented that ‘the result was in some features a great surprise’ and reported:

Afterwards the commissioners elect returned thanks, and Mr Swadling, who was returned at the head of the poll, was mounted shoulder high and carried round. Cheers were called for Kaponga, and open house was declared at the hotel.

We will first look at the broad implications for local politics of the appearance of the Town Board before following through its handling of the sanitation issue.

Although the new board was to be concerned with town affairs, its membership represented a good balance of town and rural interests. The new century had seen the appearance of the Farmers's Union, reflecting a growing feeling among farmers that they had interests to defend against urban encroachments. The Kaponga branch, founded in 1901, became moribund but was revived under F.W. Wilkie's chairmanship over late 1904 and early 1905.⁹ In September 1905 the Settlers' Association, which had encompassed both town and country interests, decided to wind up.¹⁰ In November the townsmen formed a Tradesmen's Protection Society.¹¹ So within months of the appearance of the Town Board local voluntary community associations had restructured along town/country lines. Another form of restructuring was the demise of various ad hoc local bodies with the transfer of their assets and duties to the Town Board. In July 1906 it took over control of the cemetery and domain.¹² In January 1909 it agreed to take over the Athenaeum and the library, and in November 1912 to own all property and equipment of the newly formed fire brigade.¹³ This was tidier than co-ordinating activities through overlapping ad hoc committees.

On the sanitation issue the new board imitated the stance of the Road Board. Ignoring the Health Department's clear authority under the Health Act it informed Valintine that it had no authority to drain private property but considered that the department should get on with putting in the drain at the expense of the private individuals involved. Obviously wanting to avoid a public confrontation Valintine sought Road Board authorisation for the Health Department to call tenders and do the work at the expense of the proprietors of the buildings. After ‘a desultory conversation’ the Road Board agreed to give this authority ‘subject to the road being left in good repair to the satisfaction of the foreman, and all risk of accident taken by the department while the sewer is being constructed’.¹⁴ These rural ‘gentry’ seem determined that their urban bureaucratic servants should know their place. The Town Board met a Health Department request that it supervise the laying of the pipes and this was completed in November 1905. But the department would not let the Town Board off the hook as regards the removal of night soil. In April 1906 it advised that its Inspector Gardiner had reported thoroughly on the subject to Wellington and that the board had a duty to minimise the evils of overcrowding to the best of its ability. Inspector Gardiner waited on the board to propose that an Eltham contractor whom he could recommend should provide a fortnightly service, financed by a ¾d rate on the properties concerned. The board's chairman complained:

The counties handed over to Town Boards legacies of filth and corruption and he wanted to know why things were not kept clean from the beginning. page 214 It was astonishing that within a year of the formation of the Board the inspector came along and said the town was reeking with filth.¹⁵

It was resolved to call a public meeting on the matter. The 20 ratepayers who turned up on 1 May 1906 were divided between those who thought the occupiers of overcrowded sections should pay for the problem themselves and those such as Dr Maclagan who asserted that ‘Kaponga had a bad name and all ratepayers should assist to clear it’. A compromise motion was finally passed. Over the next month or two the board drew up and adopted the needed building and sanitation by-laws and Inspector Gardiner produced a list of 38 persons required to use the night soil collection system, but nothing came of all this effort as the contract drew no tenders.¹⁶

By May 1906 the typhoid crisis was moving to a climax, with cases multiplying. The source of the infection was narrowed down and Kaponga increasingly shunned as a plague town. The Town Board became much more amenable, while seeking to keep publicity on the subject to a minimum. Thus the following report did not appear in the Star until 20 September:

… on May 3 the Clerk of the Town Board forwarded to the Health Officer the following resolution: ‘That the Board wishes to draw the attention of the Department to the unsanitary condition of the Commercial Hotel, Kaponga. Within the last twelve months a number of cases of typhoid fever have been reported to have originated at the hotel, and within the last week the Board have received notice of two cases, one at the hotel and one traceable to the hotel. It is respectfully requested that such immediate action will be taken as will remedy the evil.’

To this Dr Makgill replied: ‘I visited the hotel on June 1, and am making an extensive report to the Licensing Bench upon the subject. Very complete alterations will be required. I have no doubt the hotel has been responsible for many cases of typhoid.’

While this matter was under attention the Health Department wrote again, suggesting that as the board had failed to establish a night soil service it should tackle the water supply and drainage scheme it had earlier investigated. The letter described some of the unsatisfactory situations, including:

On section 23 [on west side of Manaia Road, south of Eltham/Manaia Road corner section], which is an area of 121 ft × 66ft, are the following buildings: Butcher's shop and small goods room, three stall stable, with manure heap and cart shed, six-roomed dwelling, and offices (drainage into a dumb well five feet from the back door), cabinetmaker's shop and workroom, dwelling of four rooms, chemist's shop, workroom and dispensary. At the latter place, occupied by Mr Cadman, the yard at the rear, containing washhouse, has an area of 18ft × 24 ft. On this space the tenant has to dispose of night soil, refuse, waste water, and the overflow from tank. In addition to the buildings page 215 on this block there are three other privies, the soil from which has to be disposed of on the section. Without going into detail I may say that all the buildings on Eltham Road, towards the Kaupokonui stream, are in little, if any, better condition.¹⁷

The board gave the letter a sympathetic hearing and decided to investigate the matter further.

By September ‘Our Own’ (10/9/06) was expressing the township's deep frustration at the inaction of the Health Department and the Hawera Licensing Committee on the matter of the hotel:

Mr Northcott (the licensee) told the Licensing committee last Friday that he had been in the hotel only six months and in that time nine cases of typhoid fever had been reported. And this state of things has been going on for years. and yet the house is not condemned yet. From the business people's point of view the matter is very serious. The last month or so the business people have been complaining of the slackness in trade and it is a common sight to see the bankers and auctioneers carrying their lunch when in Kaponga on business, and for a very good reason.

Some commercial travellers visiting the town preferred sitting on a fence and eating sixpence worth of biscuits to lunching at the hotel,¹⁸ and Awatuna East's ‘Our Own’ (27/9/06) reported travellers from Hawera picnicking in the country rather than lunching in Kaponga. The townsfolk agitated for the hotel to be condemned, but Dr Makgill had decided that the building itself was not the problem, as he explained in a letter of 18 September to the Licensing Bench:

I cannot condemn the building in terms of section 11 of the Public Health Amendment Act, 1903, as I do not believe the building has any direct influence on the outbreaks of typhoid. I regard the source of infection as arising in the insanitary surroundings—the polluted soil, which I find has been dug up out of infected cesspits and spread about to manure the garden, d from the milk, which was stored till recently in a place exposed to infection, carried by dust and flies from this soil. The old man who cleans the privies and milks also must be regarded with suspicion. This I pointed out to the present licensee on June 1, but I am informed that he has made no alteration, and the old man still does the milking etc.¹⁹

Several factors frustrated the development of a consensus. Northcott, the new licensee, seems to have taken some time to grasp the realities of the situation. The hotel building had a formidable defender in the person of the Public Trustee, acting for the child beneficiaries under the will of Gallagher, the late owner. When Northcott at last came to terms with the situation he asked for a temporary licence as he had found a suitable building to go to, but there was a delay as the chairman ‘thought’ they had no power to grant such a licence. The townsfolk must have been torn between the urge to page 216

Upgrading the Township's South, 1905–14

shout their frustration to high heaven and awareness that publicity only harmed their town's reputation further.²⁰ Eventually everyone managed to come to agreement. The hotel was not condemned but it was to be pulled down, the section thoroughly disinfected and a new building erected. Northcott got his temporary licence. The Health Department supervised an extremely thorough digging over and liming of the ground, burning of rubbish, and treatment of all cesspits discovered with large quantities of perchloride solution.²¹ By early January 1907 larrikins had broken most of the unoccupied hotel's windows and on the evening of 18 January 1907 it was burnt to the ground. There was only a light breeze at the time and showers later in the night. All neighbouring buildings were saved.²² The police were unable to establish the cause of the fire. The section lay fallow until May 1907, when a far superior new building was got under way. It was christened the Dominion Hotel when the proclamation declaring New Zealand a dominion was read from the balcony on 26 September 1907, and it was opened to the public on Thursday, 31 October.²³

So out of the two-year typhoid ordeal Kaponga gained a new hotel and the benefits of town board local government. Modern sanitation took much page 217 longer to accomplish. The Town Board was now willing to proceed with the full water supply and drainage scheme and on 1 June 1908, after hearing the District Health Officer put the case strongly, a ratepayers' meeting pledged its support. Nothing happened because the cost was nearly £3000 and Treasury could at that time only legally lend £600 to a town board.²⁴ When in 1911 this restriction no longer applied, the scheme was updated and on 27 June received the support of a ratepayers' meeting described as ‘remarkable for its unanimity and for the complete absence of hostile criticism’.²⁵ Matters were greatly helped by Eltham having successfully introduced a similar scheme. A tender was let in February 1912 and the project virtually complete by the following August.²⁶

The biennial elections for the Town Board were keenly contested, there usually being about nine candidates for the five positions. A good proportion of ratepayers cast their votes. Guided by its solicitor through the intricacies of being a subsidiary at the lowest end of the local government hierarchy, the board schemed for income wherever it was to be found, and pushed on with its programme of improvements, keeping a careful eye on its succession of ‘foremen’. Often the foreman had only his own labour to ‘oversee’, cleaning out the drains, logging the undeveloped streets, patching the developed ones. But from time to time larger projects were brought to fruition. An early one was the completion early in 1906 of proper access to the cemetery. When the following May William Swadling's wife died at the age of 36, a procession of about 200 mourners was able to make its way to the burial by the new road. A cquiring the money and purchasing the land for the stock route took longer, but it was opened in an unfinished state in November 1908 and all stock were required to use it.²⁷ Better street lighting, asphalted pavements and improved playing fields were other areas of satisfying progress.