La Grippe was at work throughout New Zealand in 1897, particularly towards the end of the year. This former name for influenza was derived from the French grippe, from gripper, meaning to grasp or hook, possibly in reference to symptoms felt by sufferers.
Mary Weal, the 34-year-old wife of Thomas Weal, farmer of Rangiaowhia, had been ill for some time and by mid-December was in a very weak state. The virus had also laid low New Zealand’s Minister for Lands who it was reported had a severe attack necessitating constant applications of ice to his head.
This 1898 illustration accompanied an advertisement for Dr William’s Pink Pills for Pale People – a ‘positive cure’ for influenza.
Mary too, was likely subjected to different treatments, many of them ‘quack’ preparations. Conquest’s Cough Cordial promised to expel the terrible scourge from the system while Chamberlain’s remedy magically relieved one sufferer so well that he was “enabled to attend to my work, and the second bottle effected a cure”.
Mary Weal, nee Fox, had been born Otahuhu, Auckland. Her family had immigrated to New Zealand in 1847 and settled at Howick. During the Waikato wars her father served as a dispatch rider, and when peace was declared, the family moved to the Te Awamutu district.
In 1881 Mary married Irishman Thomas Weal and they began farming on a Catholic mission property before taking up freehold land opposite the Rangiaowhia School. Thomas was a hard-working man who had been employed pit-sawing timber in his early manhood and also served with Major William Jackson’s Forest Rangers and the Armed Constabulary. Two years into their marriage Thomas played an active part in the arrest of the Māori prophet Te Mahuki at Alexandra (Pirongia) after the capture of Aubin Ahier. As their family grew Thomas led an active public life – he was a member of the Rangiaowhia Road Board, school committee and hall committee.
Mary, by now a busy mother of nine children, probably had little stamina and the recommended La Grippe treatments would have further debilitated her. Advice at the time included putting the feet up to the knees in water as hot as could be borne and keeping the water hot by adding boiling water. This was to be continued until perspiration started. It was helpful, though not essential, to sip lemonade. When perspiration was profuse, the feet were removed from the hot water, wrapped in hot flannel, and the patient lain down, with hot water bottles, or hot bricks, to their feet. “Lie there till you choose to get up, and La Grippe will be killed,” assured the instructions. “La Grippe is peculiarly a disease of the head. Plainly, therefore, if the blood can be drawn away from the head, the disease shall have nothing to feed on.”
Any remedies Mary endured were to no avail – about 9pm on a late December night she died from congestion of the lungs. Although she was in a very weak state it was not expected that death was so near. The deepest sympathy was felt for Thomas and the children, the youngest being just eight months old. Mary was buried at the Hairini Catholic Cemetery and there was a large attendance of sorrowing relatives and friends.
