MEDICAL PRACTICE IN OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND IN THE EARLY DAYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3489, 25 January 1921, Page 61

MEDICAL PRACTICE IN OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND IN THE EARLY DAYS.

By

Robert Valpy Fulton, M.D.

XLVII.—’TOKOMAIRIRO, THE DOCTORS’ ELYSIUM.

Tokomairiro for the first 25 years of its existence was one of the most prosper-ous-looking districts between Dunedin and Invercargill, and this was why it attracted, and later dismissed, more medical men than any other locality in the two provinces. Tokomairiro may be likened to a bar magnet. Its general appearance —that of its hard working, sunburned settlers, of its buxom, ruddy-cheeked women, of its chuckling, sturdy youngsters—had an attraction all its own, a fascination for each medical man not to be found in any other town or district in the provinces; but when the disciple of kEsculapius had settled down and looked round him a little, the other end of the magnet 'began to come into play, and the repelling influence began to be felt — a sort of unspoken but unmistakable “Move on! Move oil! You are more urgently wanted elsewhere. There is not the slightest chance of your making a living here.” The whisper was obeyed, and on he moved. The plain was to a doctor eminently desirable, but if in appearance the most prosperous in the country, in reality- it was the most salubrious, and therefore the most disappointing, always resulting in a rapid departure to a better-paying, less fortunate, and less beautiful place. There were many reasons for this. First, no doctor arrived of the simple “W ilium M'Clure” ty-pe, ready to work for the mere love of it—willing to live, and be more than contented with the plain, hard fare of the country settler, to take payment in kind, and exceedingly little of that, owing to scarcity of sickness. But each doctor as he came saw in a little while that he must practically abandon his profession and become a small farmer or there was no chance for him. The majority were young, eager, keen to improve themselves; they had come to the “end of the world” to make money quickly and perhaps to get back to the Old Country: they had the latest teaching from the first schools in the world, were the forerunners in the great changes that were taking place in medicine and surgery; they' were not going to be content to sit down in Lotus Land and allow their talents to waste. Into the towns they quickly' moved; for wherever they tried in a purely agricultural district the story was the same —starvation, stagnation, or get out. Tokomairiro attracted by its very luxuriance and extent; it was of no less than 14,000 acres in area, and its splendid hills, its fine rolling, wellwatered downs, its freedom from swamps, its splendid expanse, its scarcity' of timber country, no goldfields, its lack of coal, were all factors which in the aggregate made it hard for a medical man to earn a living. Neighbouring districts or towns were inundated with floods, with the accompanying accidents and succeeding sickness ; there coal miners worked in horrible pits and excavations many hundreds of feet deep, sweated, toiled, and when dreaded fire-damp came and explosions re-

sulted, laid down their lives, or, broken and wounded, called for attention; goldfields drew hundreds of people with the innumerable accidents of claim and tail race. Snowstorms common on the higher levels were never felt in Tokomairiro ; there were no rugged and dangerous ranges to cross in winter, and no 1 unhealthy aggregations of canvas towns in the summer, bringing diseases of all kinds into the place. No timber country provided the usual bush accidents from falling trees and crosscut saws; swamps practically absent, with their accompanying flies and mosquitoes, now known to be the chief cause of so-called “miasmata” ; the length of the plains allowed of great distances between the settlements of houses; and the absence of any “industry” or “manyhanded” factory made bread-winning by' a doctor a matter of difficulty. Be this' as it may, a great number of them came and went, one or two years being the average length of their stay. Some are mere names, and mean nothing to us; others are well known, and, after their little flutter in the Tokomairiro district, folded their pinions and made comfortable nests for themselves in the larger towns of Dunedin, Oamaru, and Invercargill. Tudor Williams, the first doctor, stayed for some years, did excellent work, married a well-known and accomplished Lady, Miss Flora M'Kay', moved on into Oamaru, and died there, his widow' and children coming back to the Tokomairiro to be near their own people. At this time Robert Martin, the Gillies and Salmonds, Greys, James Smith, Edward Duthie, and James Adam occupied nearly the whole of the plain. Peter M‘Gill had built his first mill, and the Browns were at work in “the fall” of 1857 grinding flour. William Baskett, Tlonrv Clark, and M'Gill did most of the building with their own hands. John Wilson’s excellent “Reminiscences of Dunedin and South Otago” give a fine account of the plains in those days and supply the myriad details of life in the early settlement. An interesting little point in connection with the first Presbyterian Church will oear repeating. Mr John Gillies, sen., one of the Toko, settler.-: and a lawyer of Dunedin, the father of four remarkably able sons, presented ;> bell to the very first chinch, which was built, in 1855 and opened formally in February, 1857. ITifortnnaioly the vessel which brought the bell to tire colony- did not dc- ; n 1 through some misciipnee tire bed ■ talcn tack whence it ■■no.' to the Old Ounu r'-. After many months Li ipped' He lbi-ry, and arrived at Otnkou on 20th August. 1.55.9, but, before deliver c uH be taken (lie vessel caught (Ire. and she and her con-

tents were so damaged that everything had to be sold as salvage. Mr Gillies, however, was a man of determination, and was on the ground at the Henbury salvage sale, and, bidding for his bell, secured it, having to pay a good price for it a second time. It was then taken down to the Toko, and hung in the church; but when the new churcn was built its tones were not thought to be sufficientlypleasing ; it had probably been cracked or damaged in the fire, at any rate it was taken to Dunedin and recast, and then hung once more where it now is, whence its sonorous tones peal out regularly on Sabbath Day. The Gillies were a remarkable family'. Thomas, tha lawyer, rose through many Executive positions in the General Assembly to be Superintendent of the Auckland Province, -and afterwards a judge of the Supreme Court. He was a man of wide scientific tastes, and wrote articles on the animal and vegetable life of the colony, contributed to the Trans actions of the New Zealand Institute, and was thrice President of the Auckland Philosophical Institute in 1869, 1873, and 1876. Robert was a surveyor by profession, became an active politician, and was member for Bruce County'. Ho also was a keen observer of Nature, and published many articles on scientific subjects in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute ; that one brother should be President of the leading scientific society' in the province of Otago while another should occupy a similar position the same year (1876) in the affiliated society in Auckland is worthy of mention, and probably of unique interest. William entered the Presbyterian ministry, and had a long and honourabl career at West Taieri, Timaru, and Tauranga. John Lillie Gillies was a member of the Otago Provincial Council, and occupied manyprominent positions in Dunedin, including for many years that of secretary of the Harbour Board. When he was leaving the Tokomairiro district and the settlers made up a purse of sovereigns as a token of their good will towards him, he generously declined it, with a request that they utilise it as a scholarship or prize with which to equip or help pupil teachers in their schools. He also assisted the advancement of the country by importing what was called a road steamer m 1871. The next doctor to come was Alexander Baird or Beard, a tall, fine-looking Scotsman ; but of him we- can gather little. We are fortunate in obtaining a photograph of him from Mr E. M. Duthie. of Janefield. All we know of poor Dr Baird is that he was not long in the place—some time in 1860, when lie took by mistake a deadly poison—some say corrosive sublimate, others arsenic, instead of baking soda. The story goes that he ran to the Maoris and begged for milk by signs, gesticulations, and broken Maori-pidgin-Einglish, but all in vain. They could not understand him, and the poison got too great a hold, so that he died in a few hours in great, pain.

After him Dr Alexander Allan Fleming i settled down, and seemed to be in the I way of doing well; but after Williams's j death in Oamaru he moved on to the ; northern town, was there for a good many years, afterwards, retiring to" Tauranga, where he met his death by being gored by a bull. Fleming was inclined to have a fancy for heart disease, and was very solemn in his warning to the supposed sufferers to be “very- careful.” One of the Salmonds took this warning “very mu.cn to heart” and went “carefully” to bed, and there he stayed for 40 years! Dr Fleming was a good rider, and rather m amusing tale is related of one occasion when lie was out with Dr Borrows m consultation. In such an extensive dis trict good horsemanship was absolutely necessary for a doctor. Dr Borrows, who had been at sea, did not like horse-riding at all and did not siiine as an equestrian. They- were arguing .about the respective merits of their steeds while- they' were jogging along, and to settle some dispute as to which was the better horse they appealed to a farmer whom they' met. Dr Borrows was confident of his claims, and Fleming as vigorously backed his mount. “Week Doctor Burrers [everybody called

poor old Borrows Burrers], yours is the best horse if it iuist hed a mon that could ride it.” I)r Fleming went to Oamaru about 1866, where ' he had a brother, David Fleming, who was in the teaching profession, and who had been private tutor to James Fulton’s sons at Ravensbourne in 1869 and 1870. Dr Adolph Weber, a Bavarian of good birth, manners, and education, was next on the scene. He came about- 1861, and married the widow of John Tudor Williams some years later. He was tail and slight and always wore glasses, and was very fond of children, and used to amuse them with some fancy methods of whistling, humming, and buzzing, making use of his tongue, teeth, and lips, all in perfect accompaniment to his wife’s splendid playing. She was noted both in Dunedin as Mrs Tudor Williams and in Milton as Mrs Weber for her execution otl the pianoforte. Dr Weber was an accomplished physician, and was said to be a near relative of Sir Hermann Weber, a celebrated London specialist. lie was also a brother of Mr Charles Weber, of Hawke's Bay, a well known civil engineer and surveyor, who was lost in the bush in the ’nineties. We have not much information about Dr Weber. The only story that one can get is that in the early ’seventies he came across to the Taieri, and succeeded in rousing from one of her trances Miss Ross, the Taieri fasting girl. This he did by the use, it was said, of croton oil on the lion ! in tin* wav of b i ter. Marly in 1874- Mr- Web . die!, and the 'Fetor too!.- (hi- loss very sorely, and. on the 201;: (Icl-ib -. his In : ■ r : m c-v, MV' Palmer, lie;.- ' a cur;. loud, ,-tcr lorous breathing in h-s consulting ro-ui;, Dr M'Beau Slpwarfc v.es , once m l for, j rod did all that- could be done for him, ! but he died in a few hours. At the in- I (, -st. held next dar bv Warden W. I

Carew, of Lawrence, a verdict in accordance with the doctor’s evidence that death was due to apoplexy was recorded. tie was 42 years of age, and left two daughters, who are, we believe, still living. He was a kindly gentleman, and was well liked all through the district. Dr Cameron came next, but he was only a few months in the Tokomairiro. He was a tail, well-set-up your.g man, nephew of Mr Frank Chrystall, a settler in the district. He also boarded with Mr Duthie, and we have been lucky in getting a photo of him. It shows him in the typical costume of the time, thouga we have another of him standing up, immaculately groomed, and evidently going to an important function or perhaps to a very particular patient.

Followed in succession Robert Borrows, who moved into Dunedin and lived at the corner of Stuart street and Moray place; William Brown, later the well-known Dunedin surgeon; and Alexander J. Fergussou, the physician of High street, Dunedin. Dr Fergusson practised for many years in Dunedin, and was deservedly popular, a genial, good-natured, kindly physician of the old school, very humorous, witty, and fond of jokes. His fourwheeled buggy with single horse was weil known in town, where he carried on an extensive and wearing friendly society practice for a long time. A fine portrait of him can be seen in the Museum -of the Otago Early Settlers’ Association. He died of heart disease in the late nineties. Other Milton doctors were Young, who came to Dunedin, and then went to Auckland, where lie died ; Stackpoole, who lived a short time in Moray place, Dunedin, arm then went inland; Scott, who transferred to Southland; Robert Reid, brother of a well-known resident, Donald Reid, who went north, and was for many years in practice in Timaru; John Sommsrvilie, not to be confused with the well-known High School dux, who is at Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, but an entirely different man, who went we know not where. These, with the modern men of the last 20 years, of whom there have, been nigh on to a dozen, leave us but the two Peter Stewarts, of the ’seventies, who are entitled to a separate article to themselves.