The dead tell tales
James John (Jim) Daley 1865-1943
Jim Daley had the distinction of being Waikato Hospital’s first surgical patient – this had definite pros and cons, as the hospital was just an empty farmhouse with no medical facilities or fulltime staff.
Early in 1887 the Waikato Hospital and Charitable Aid Board had leased the five-roomed house with 50 acres; Dr GG Kenny was appointed medical superintendent and Philip Munro as caretaker/orderly.
But there was no nurse, no kitchen staff, no lighting.
When 22-year-old Daley arrived on the evening of May 17, 1887, it was to find the new hospital somewhat lacking.
Daley’s need was urgent – that morning, he had foolishly fired a rifle even though he was warned it might misfire.
It did, and caused traumatic injuries to his left hand. The local doctor raced to the scene, but hearing his plan to amputate at the wrist, Daley hoped Waikato Hospital could do better.
He and his brother caught the train to Hamilton, after waiting several hours at the Te Awamutu station.
Dr Kenny did the operation, Dr Murch was anaesthetist using some hastilybought chloroform, and the publican of the Commercial Hotel, CJW Barton, and the proprietor of the Waikato Times, George Edgecumbe, held some candles.
Dr Kenny did save most of Daley’s hand – he lost the thumb, index and middle finger, drastic for a blacksmith. He was known to be “a steady young fellow and very industrious” according to the Waikato Times (May 19, 1887) with a good occupation ahead of him.
The Waikato Times had some stringent comments to make: “the miserable inadequacy of the appointments to meet the necessities of the case was painfully apparent.
Why the appointment of nurses has been delayed so long, and why the hospital has not by this time been supplied with the common necessaries of such an institution, are questions in everybody’s mouth”.
The lack of nursing staff meant that Jim Daley’s brother had to stay with him and bring food and drink.
Daley later complained that he couldn’t sleep – not so much the pain but because he had a wire-wove bed with mattress, far too soft for a working man. There were blankets but no sheets; milk and water diet for the first few days; no nurses until just before he was discharged two weeks’ later.
Daley is credited with another ‘first’: as being the first white child born in the militia settlement of Alexandra [Pirongia].
His father, John Daley, was a member of the 3rd Waikato Militia, but although he received his land grants, he didn’t stay around.
Some family say he was lost overboard from a ship en route to Britain; others say he may simply have stopped off in Australia and established a new life.
Whichever, his wife Louisa stayed in Pirongia and married William Nabbs in
1879 (but that’s another story). James married Rosa Jane Pearson in
1906 – they had four surviving children but four others died as newborns. They lived first at Mangapiko and then shifted to another farm on Kawhia Road just south of Pirongia. Jim built the farm houses, for despite the lack of digits he managed very well, building brick chimneys and farm buildings and managing the small herd of cows and other stock. The family was not well-off: the house was unfinished for years, with no floor in the front room. The kitchen was papered with newspapers.
Daley was also a water-diviner – he would get a temporary headache when he was over water, and check it with a divining rod. He charged farmers for his services.
At Waikato Hospital’s golden jubilee in 1937 Daley was presented with a silver teapot, suitably inscribed. It is now on display in the Level 2 corridor at Waikato Hospital. James Daley died on August 5,
1943, aged 78 years and was buried in Alexandra Cemetery, Pirongia.