Doctor who treated M¯aori

Dr George Cleghorn was instrumental in setting up a fever ward at Wairau Hospital. Yet, even as people were dying from typhoid in the 1890s, he was not allowed to treat Ma¯ori there. Maia Hart reports.

When Dr George Cleghorn moved to Marlborough in 1876, he was a fresh-faced 26-year-old. But it didn’t take him long to get to work at a general practice in Blenheim. And by 1878, he was appointed surgeon of the newly opened Wairau Hospital.

It was a position he would hold for two decades, during which time his ‘‘fame as a brilliant surgeon’’ spread across New Zealand.

But it wasn’t just his skills as a surgeon that endeared him to the wider community.

The India-born Cleghorn was a big player in sporting circles too, with stints as president of swimming, rowing and cricket clubs.

To this day, Blenheim’s Oliver Park, with its cricket wicket and batting nets, is bordered on one side by Cleghorn Street. And the rotunda in the town centre – close to where the old hospital was – is dedicated to Cleghorn.

Yet despite his standing in the community, he was met with criticism for treating Ma¯ ori living at the Wairau Pa¯ during an outbreak of typhoid in 1899.

It was the third typhoid outbreak of the 1890s, and people were dying.

Cleghorn had earlier advocated for a fever ward separate from other patients at Wairau Hospital. He recognised patients with infectious diseases needed to be isolated. He was still not allowed to treat Ma¯ ori though.

Marlborough Museum director and historian Steve Austin said

Ma¯ ori at the Wairau Pa¯ were supposed to go to the Picton Hospital.

‘‘We don’t know why,’’ he said. ‘‘The Blenheim hospital board kept saying they were not funded to provide treatment for Ma¯ ori.

‘‘[But] he treated them, despite being annoyed by severe and discourteous criticism from the hospital board chairman.’’

Austin said while Ma¯ ori might have had access to a GP, getting help from the hospital wasn’t as easy. But throughout his career at Wairau Hospital, which ended not long after the 1899 outbreak, Cleghorn treated Ma¯ ori regardless.

Molly Luke, of Nga¯ ti Ra¯ rua, said having someone like Cleghorn must have been ‘‘extra special for local

Ma¯ ori’’.

‘‘We finally had somebody back then who had some empathy for our people, and was able to work with them,’’ Luke said.

‘‘We were lucky to have somebody at that stage, otherwise we wouldn’t have got the treatment we needed at all. And he did that off his own bat, and was reprimanded for that.’’

Colonisation brought about diseases local Ma¯ ori were unfamiliar with, and did not have the means to treat, Luke said.

She understood the Picton Hospital was not as well equipped as the Wairau Hospital.

A report, Te Tau Ihu o te Waka a Maui, recalled the oral histories of the eight iwi in the top of the south and was used as evidence for the Waitangi Tribunal claims.

An extract from the report stated: ‘‘between 1892 and 1894, the Wairau people suffered from diphtheria, then measles and finally typhoid, the latter killing two of the school pupils. Seven people died at the Wairau during another typhoid epidemic in 1896.

‘‘The outbreak originated with the poor water supply but subsequent improvements to it were not sufficient to avoid a further epidemic in 1899.

‘‘It is well known that 19thcentury Ma¯ ori, lacking immunity to the new infections, suffered much