A correspondent, writing from Skipper’s Gully, on the 16th instant, says:-The prevalence of scurvy in this place is frightful, and every day fresh victims are added to the list of sick. We can scarcely obtain anything here but rusty bacon and flour, without the sign of any vegetables; and this, with the constant exposure of every inclemency of the weather, will affect the strongest constitution. There are three I saw the other day in a dreadful state, unable to move or speak, whose condition I will not trust my pen to write, for fear you should think I am exaggerating; but leave your imagination to picture the direst form of that terrible disease, aggravated by neglect. (Lake Wakatip Mail, 25 July 1863, p. 4)

On his way up he was distressed at seeing a man carried on a stretcher by his six mates, evidently suffering great pain. On enquiry he found the poor fellow exhausted by rheumatism and scurvy, and owing to the dangerous state of the roads he could not be brought down on a horse. What crime had the Victorians committed that they should be denied the privilege of roads, medical aid and protection? (Lake Wakatip Mail, 6 June 1863, p. 4)

long want, improper food, grief, melancholy, cold etc; and the symptoms …  … ; such as gums monstrously putrid, swelled legs, livid blue spots and hardnes [sic] on the body, contracted limbs, the scorbutic deliquium, often ending in the most sudden and unexpected death, fluxes and haemorrhages of all sorts etc. (Lind 1753, p. 311).

in the case of scorbutic people, it is somewhat singular, and peculiar to them, that though when at rest they find themselves quite well; yet, upon the least exercise, they are subject, at first, to a panting and breathlessness, which, as the disease increases, degenerates into a proneness to faint; and lastly, in the height of the malady, upon using exercise, or and exertion of their strength, or upon being exposed to a sudden change of air, they are apt to drop down dead. (Lind 1753, p. 320)

Dunstan Hospital Patient Register 1863–1864

The patient register begins with a round up and classification of diseases from July to 31^st of December 1863. This consists almost entirely of outpatients, as the hospital only officially opened to in-patients in 1864. There is a note on the page: ‘A considerable number of outpatients were cases of scurvy, rheumatism, catarrh and colonial fever’ but the patient numbers are not given for this period. In 1864, 227 in-patients and 83 out-patients were seen at the hospital. Twenty-five of these were treated for scurvy or ‘scorbutus’, the term commonly used in the register ( and ). All of those affected were men and while their occupation was not recorded it is highly likely they were engaged in mining.

In January 1864, ten of the men were treated as in-patients while seven were out-patients. The records for this year of the register are very patchy and it is difficult to precisely quantify the number of admissions. For example, John Tie, a 25-year-old Irishman working in Kawarau was seen as an outpatient on the 29^thof January. However, there are also two records of him being admitted for ‘rheumatismus of scorbut’ earlier in the month of January (Archives New Zealand. DHPR. January 1864, In-patient entry 42. Out-patient entry 41). He was admitted on the 14th of January for a total of 10 days and then readmitted 4 days later and spent another 14 days in hospital in February for the same condition (Archives New Zealand. DHPR. February 1864, In-patient entry 16).

In February of 1864, there were two records of new scurvy patients, one inpatient and one outpatient. Then in March Michael Dungan was the only scurvy patient admitted and was discharged on the 11^th of July after 129 days in hospital (Archives New Zealand. DHPR. July 1864, In-patient entry 4). There was only one death recorded in the DHPR as the result of scurvy; Thomas Lloyd, a 42-year-old Welsh man working in Manuherikia. He was admitted on the 22^nd of December 1863 and died on the 2^nd of February 1864 (Archives New Zealand. DHPR. February 1864, In-patient entry 6). Thomas was in hospital for 103 days before his death. He was being treated for ‘scorbutus bronchitisque’. Two other men were seen as outpatients at the end of 1863.

From August (after Dungan was discharged in July) to December of 1864 there were no further cases of scurvy recorded. In fact, there were no further cases of patients admitted for scurvy in the remaining 19 years of the register. It is possible however that scurvy was still being treated in outpatients after this point but while the numbers of outpatients are noted, the conditions being treated were not. It is also possible that sub-clinical or less severe cases were managed in the community and did not require hospital treatment.

Clinical and functional implications for patients

For most of these patients the symptoms would have been similar to those described by Lind above, with a range of severity. It is probably safe to assume that if these men were admitted, their symptoms must have been on the more extreme end of the scale. An affliction with scurvy not only came with the severe fatigue described above, but a loss of limb function due to haemorrhaging into muscle tissue and joints would also have occurred. The ‘rheumatismus of scorbutis’ noted for two of the patients is likely describing the pain associated with bleeding into the joints, as ‘rheumatism’ generally denotes joint pain.

The rheumatismus of scorbutus for which John Tie was admitted could have presented as Lind describes, where following the pale and bloated face and a general aversion to work and exercise;

Today an inflammation of the synovium, the membrane lining a synovial joint capsule, has multiple aetiologies and is termed ‘synovitis’. How synovitis was recognised in the nineteenth century is difficult to discern, but two of the patients are recorded with ‘scorbutic synovitis’ in the register. William Harper, a 34-year-old Scottish man working at Hogburn was initially seen for scorbutic synovitis as an outpatient and then admitted. He spent 39 days in and was discharged on the 14^th of February. Lind (1753, p. 162) describes symptoms which may have been diagnosed as the synovitis associated with scurvy: Despite the cure for scurvy being well understood in the 1860s many of these patients had prolonged stays in the hospital. As noted, the records are very patchy in 1864 but for several the outpatients the duration of time the men had been sick with scurvy prior to examination by a doctor was noted. For example, George Bilfrow (age not recorded) was an English man working at Millers Flat who had been ill with scorbutus for over 2 months before being seen at the hospital.

Time and space of scurvy patients- relationship to the Dunstan and Mt Ida Rushes

The scorbutic patients were recorded as having been ‘employed at’ ten different locations, although three of these did not have this information recorded ( and ). There does not seem to be any pattern of some diggings having more cases than others; the Manuherikia, Kawarau, and Campbells Gully all have three patients, while the rest have either only a single case or two cases. The discovery of rich gold deposits in the Clutha River by Hartley and Reilly in 1862 marked the beginning of the Dunstan Rush and fanned out from this point (Pyke 1887). Manuherikia likely represents present day Alexandra but may also have been anywhere within the Manuherikia valley, where a rush began in April 1864 (Pyke 1887). The patients from Hogburn (Naseby), Campbells Gully, Serpentine and Hamiltons were all probably part of the Mt Ida Rush which began in late May of 1864. Two patients were working at the greatest distance from the hospital; Charles Brown and Hugh Riley, from the Nevis, some 20 kilometres from the Dunstan Hospital as the crow flies, but with the treacherous Old Man Range in between.

While these numbers are small, they likely represent men who were caught up in the mayhem associated with rushes to new diggings. Vincent Pyke who chronicled the early discoveries of gold in Otago noted that by 1864 ‘The feverish excitement of 1861 and 1862 has gradually died away … .’ (pp. 91). ‘The number of miners in Otago attained its greatest height at the beginning of 1864. By the census returns of December in that year the total population of the Goldfields was enumerated at 15,700 persons; … ’ (pp. 91). Prior to this, in late 1862 and the beginning of 1863, the Wakatipu rush up the Arrow and Shotover Rivers was the largest and pushed into the most remote and dangerous parts of the region, all in a time when there were no established medical facilities and only sporadic supply of any food. The high numbers of scurvy noted as outpatients in the 1863 DHPR record are probably men who had been caught up in this Wakatipu rush. Similarly, the patients treated in early 1864 working in the regions associated with the Dunstan and Mt Ida rushes, were likely amongst the first miners to venture into these new areas, again before supply chains had been established.

Other people admitted to the Dunstan hospital during this time may have had healed scurvy that lacked acute clinical signs of the disease such as the characteristic purpura. For example, some of the 33 non-scorbutic rheumatic cases in 1864 may have been related to past scurvy episodes. This possibility is supported by Lind’s description of the residual symptoms of scurvy where he explains that after recovery a scurvy patient is often left with swelling and oedema in their legs ‘Such persons are likewise subject, in different periods of their life afterwards, to chronic rheumatisms, pains and stiffness in their joints: and sometimes cutaneous eruptions, or a foulness of the skin’ (Lind 1753, p. 179). Therefore, while the acute effects of scurvy appear to have eased early in the gold rush days, the legacy of poor diet and privation may have continued for many years after. However, it should be noted that the nineteenth century doctor used the term rheumatism to describe a suite of joint pain from the arthritic to the infectious (Block 1999) and trying to navigate this diagnostic rabbit-hole has beaten even the most experienced of medical historians (Fox 1932; Storey et al. 1994).

The Dunedin Hospital Casebook (DHCB)

The Dunedin Hospital Casebook (Vol II) is another source of health information from the early period of the city. While the DHPR simply states the disease a patient was suffering, the casebook describes the patient’s history, their physical symptoms, the treatment, and status of recovery. There were 17 cases of scurvy in the DHCB during the period between 1864 and 1869. All were men and 14 of these were seamen recently arrived in the city from on board a ship. The land-based cases were from 1864-1865, and the later cases were all from ships, demonstrating a provenance of scurvy cases unrelated to our market gardening question ().

Three ships had more than one man suffering from scurvy on arrival to Dunedin. On the ‘Echunga’ (arrival October 1867) three men were admitted within a couple of days of each other. James Ratcliff was an immigrant just landed from the ‘Echunga’. He was a 41-year-old native of Derbyshire and admitted for ‘pupura haemorrhagia on legs, gums swelled, general debility’ (Archives New Zealand. DHCB. 1867, p. 480). He was treated with citric acid, potassium bicarbonate and Milk and Beeftea. He left after about a month as a convalescent. Another man (Joseph Kantze) from the ‘Echunga’, this time a seaman, a 34-year-old native of Prussia (Archives New Zealand. DHCB. 1867, p. 481), was admitted one day after James Ratcliffe on October the 16th. He was affected with ‘scurvy in the lower extremities chiefly- gums little swelled- bluish stains in the popliteal spaces, yellow colour of thighs and legs, with dark patches on shins: the knees bent and stiff, could be straightened but with pain’. The blue and dark patches under the skin would be evidence of the haemorrhage associated with scurvy of the muscles and into the joints. He was treated with Milk and Beeftea, citric acid, potassium bicarbonate, Acque?, horis? ‘Full diet afterward instead of beeftea’.

Symptoms of bluish stains of the shins and stiffness in the knees, as described above, were common amongst these scorbutic hospital patients. For example, in 1867 Charles Jeremiah (Meyer), a ‘native of the Friendly Islands (of Polynesian race)’ was admitted with scurvy (Archives New Zealand. DHCB. 1867, p. 439). He was a seaman ex the ‘Beautiful Star’ and had come to Dunedin from London. His symptoms were ‘swelling of the gums, debility, stiffness of the knee joints, and discolouration with hardness in the popliteal spaces of both thighs’.

The other two ships with more than one scurvy sufferer on landing were the Rowena (October 1866) and the Celeano (January 1867). One of the men on board the Celeano was discharged as ‘cured’ after a month while the second man, a Thomas O’Connor was in for 4 months before he was ‘told to leave the Hospital for disorderly conduct’ (Archives New Zealand. DHCB. 1867, p. 372). Only one of these sailors is recorded as having left the hospital to return to their ship. The protracted stays for many of the other men presumably left them without employment and far from home. As the cause of scurvy, and the treatment, was known in this period the lack of duty of care of the shipping companies seems apparent in the regular occurrence of this readily preventable disease.

Of the non-seamen, Benjamin Humpage was a 30-year-old native of Bristol, living in Waipori (Archives New Zealand. DHCB. 1865, p. 66). He was a ‘surgeon’ and was admitted on the 16th of January 1864 for scabies and ‘purpura (scurvy)’. The only miner in the group was Thomas Scott a 21-year-old man from Roxburgh (Scotland?) (Archives New Zealand. DHCB. 1865, p. 89). He had been working as a miner in Serpentine and was admitted in February 1865 with ‘fever and purpura’. The scorbutic affection shewed itself in discolourations of the Skin on the arms and legs- of a dark red colour with effusion into the cellular tissue’ ().

Death registers

In the very early period of the Otago goldrushes death was frequent, and in many cases men disappeared without a trace. While legally all deaths were supposed to be registered, this did not always occur. Bodies and even the skeletonised remains of men were found who were never identified (Dwyer 2003). Death from accidents and drownings are most frequent causes in the Death Registers examined as part of a wider study underway. From the current evidence we will probably never know the full cost to life from the deprivations associated with the rushes up to 1864.

Permission to consult and transcribe the Death registers of the Otago region was granted to Buckley by the Registrar General in 2021. Only aggregated data can be disclosed, and the names of the deceased are not to be used, without permission of family. In the Dunstan death register (1863-1875) there were 64 deaths of European men in 1863 and 1864. None of these were recorded as due to scurvy or for the rest of the registers where there was a total of 314 entries.

The Gabriel’s Gully (GG) registers from 1863–1887 (n = 700 entries) were transcribed in full and due to time constraints, only the adult women and Chinese from 1888–1899 (n = 155) were transcribed. Two deaths caused by scurvy, prior to 1888, were reported. One was a Chinese man in 1867 who died of ‘scorbutis’ at the Tuapeka hospital (Archives New Zealand. GG 1871). The second is of a European man who died in 1875 from ‘disease brought on by self-neglect (scurvy)’ (Archives New Zealand. GG 1875).

For Manuherikia (1866-1875; n = 61 entries) and Cromwell (1868-1875; n = 117 entries) there were no scurvy deaths reported. Of course, some of the deaths in the earlier registers were of unknown men presumed drowned in rivers and others had died of ‘exposure to cold’. These men, and others not registered, may have suffered from scurvy, hastening their deaths.

The absence of scurvy from the DHPR after the middle of 1864 and other land-based cases in the DHCB after 1865, negates the assumption that scurvy was ‘rife’ in the goldfields beyond the initial rushes and while there are few other extant hospital patient records, the death registers are almost completely devoid of scurvy-related deaths. The evidence from these sources therefore suggests that scurvy was initially a major problem in the gold fields, but the assumed lack of supplies containing Vitamin C into the frontier towns and gold fields does not appear to have persisted beyond 1864.

A newspaper account from February 1865 further attests to the easing of the scurvy burden through the establishment of vegetable gardens at the Dunstan District Hospital. The account begins with a description of the grounds and the gardens

The reporter then describes the situation facing the surgeon only two years previously: This account supports the DHPR evidence of the scurvy ‘epidemic’ being short and sharp, at least in this region of the Otago goldfields, and coincides with the end of the initial ‘rush’ into the new fields of Mt Ida and Manuherikia mid-1864.

Another source of information regarding the easing of the scurvy burden can be found in the report for Government of the Wakatip District Hospital covering the period Nov 30th 1863–29th Feb 1864. ‘The nature of diseases are varied. At first all patients suffered principally from disease under head of ‘scorbutic’ (the most in number being disease and complaints connected with the chest)’. A table of all diseases compiled by the resident surgeon Dr Pelley is referred to, but not present. In April 1864 Dr Pelley states ‘That the diseases are now generally of an acute character’ (Lake Wakatip Mail, 2 April 1864, p. 6).

In 1871, The Evening Star made mention of a small rush to The Lammerlaw Range (50kms west of Dunedin), where the correspondent states these diggings are the most ‘scorbutic’ in the country (Evening Star, 4 February 1871, p. 2), but no further reports can be found on this.

Scurvy and Chinese gardeners

In 1865 Otago provincial authorities invited Chinese miners to the goldfields to help keep the money from the gold industry flowing. But it was not until 1866 that Chinese came to Otago in any numbers, initially from the Australian goldfields in the state of Victoria and then later, in the 1870s, directly from China (Beattie 2015). Beattie (2017) suggests that the fresh produce provided by Chinese gardeners would have helped to stave off disease from poor diets, such as scurvy. Dr James Ng, a clinician and Chinese historian, refers to a glut of vegetable produce in some parts of Dunstan goldfields district the 1870s ‘that had arisen because of the need to counteract scurvy in the earlier goldrush years’ (Ng 1993, p. 134). He also notes the last Chinese miner to die from scurvy was Ah Sing in 1872 at Macraes Flat (Ng 1993, note 50).

The Chinese were known for their affinity with gardening and even the most modest of Chinese miner’s dwellings were usually associated with a small garden, producing green vegetables (Ritchie 1986; Beattie 2017). The planting of fruit trees in house gardens and small orchards of plum and peaches were also established on arrival. Archaeological evidence of peach kernels has been found throughout the region (Ritchie 1986). The legacy of the planting of fruit trees and other edibles is seen in the clusters of old plums and tangled gooseberry bushes where hut sites once stood (Ritchie 1986).

So-called ‘market gardeners’ started early as a small number of the first Chinese immigrants struck up this trade immediately on arrival in 1867 (Ng 1993). Initially, the industry of Chinese in their mining and setting up house gardens was greatly admired in both the Australian and New Zealand goldfields (Boileau 2017). Later, large scale market gardening in New Zealand was predominantly carried out by the Chinese and the frontier towns associated with the goldfields were grateful for the supply of fresh produce. Presumably, Europeans also quickly recognised the need to produce their own fresh vegetables and establish more permanent dwellings, with a house garden (Smith 1987). This strategy was quickly adopted by Australian Victorian diggers and regulations encouraged small land plots associated with gold claims, specifically to produce food (Boileau 2017). The initial influx of European miners to the Otago rushes were largely from Victoria (Belich 1996, p. 346), therefore it is reasonable to assume that both groups of immigrants came with the knowledge of a need to supplement their diet by growing fresh produce. In fact, formal provision had also been made for holders of Miner’s Rights in Otago goldfields to be able to occupy ground for cultivation of food as early as 1862, four years before the Chinese arrived (Otago Provincial Council Votes & Proceedings, Session XVI 1862, p. 24).

Indeed, three of the patients in the early DHPR records (pre-1867) have their occupation recorded as ‘Gardener’. One of these was Thomas Gard who was first admitted in 1866. He was admitted again in 1871 by which time he was advertising seeds and plants for sale in the Dunstan Times (Dunstan Times, 14April 1871, p. 3) (). Therefore, we would argue that in the early periods of the Otago goldfields, European miners understood the need to supplement their limited diet to keep scurvy at bay. However, it was not until supply chains opened after the initial rushes that they would have had the opportunity to grow fresh produce.

It must also be remembered that European settlement in the region had been underway for at least 20 years prior to the gold rush, including establishing home gardens. For example, gardening for both enjoyment and sustenance, was viewed as an important duty of any settler’s wife (Soper 1948). Indeed, seed for garden vegetables and flowers were imported from ‘home’ and advertisements by ‘Peter Lawson and Son’ for Seeds and Plants are found as early as 1864 in the Otago papers (Otago Daily Times, 1 February 1864, p. 1) and was quickly followed by suppliers closer to home in New Zealand (Southland Times, 26 July 1864, p. 4). In a search of Papers Past advertisements in Otago Newspapers for ‘Seeds and Plants’ 1850–1870 there are fully 327 hits beginning in 1864.

This argument that Europeans may have been responsible for curtailing scurvy prior to the arrival of Chinese is not proposed to diminish in any way the contributions made to the Otago economy and society by the Chinese immigrants, but to explore some of the reasons as to why this ‘assumption’ has been maintained in the modern consciousness.

From the primary medical evidence assessed in this paper, by the time the Chinese arrived in 1867, there seems to be little evidence of this disease amongst the European miners of Otago. However, one of only two deaths related to scurvy in these records, in the goldfield towns post-1864 is of a Chinese man in 1867 died of ‘scorbutis’ at the Tuapeka hospital. Given the timing of this death in relation to Chinese immigration to the goldfields, it is possible he was among some of the first Chinese to arrive in the region. Also, given the relationship between scurvy and seafaring described above, it is possible his scurvy developed on the voyage to New Zealand.

Support for this interpretation can be found amongst the newspapers of the day. A rather disturbing account of Chinese experiences during the journey to New Zealand is given in 1868 in the West Coast Times (via Argus Melbourne) (West Coast Times, 1 October 1868, p. 3). The barque Dayspring arrived in Argus Melbourne from Hong Kong where all but 20–30 of the original 96 Chinese passengers had died of scurvy. The ship came via Williamstown, where an inquest was conducted. Evidence heard at the inquest tells of provisions that ‘were inferior to those served to the ship’s crew- in fact they were not only of inferior quality, but seriously curtailed of in quantity’ (West Coast Times, 16September 1868, p. 2). As the voyage around Australian ports progressed, the Chinese continued to die, and their bodies were thrown overboard, an horrendous outcome for these sojourners.

Other accounts of scurvy amongst Chinese sea passengers can be found; in September 1871

What follows is truly repulsive language that not only demonstrates a lack of understanding of the non-infectious cause of scurvy but also the ignorance of many of the European settlers of the day. In relaying the similarities in this occurrence of sickness coming from the sea the writer states; It is telling that the ‘scurvy’ did not afflict the European passengers and the account from the Dayspring indicates the Chinese were treated deplorably on some of these voyages. Scurvy became a disease of self-neglect among the Europeans, but a reflection of inherent evil and vice for the Chinese. In another account, later in September 1871 for some reason it needed to be qualified whether a Chinese man was suffering from scurvy; ‘A report that obtained currency, to the effect that a Chinaman is suffering from scurvy at Bristol House, is, we are informed, incorrect. A Chinaman, one of the late arrivals, is suffering in the Hospital from weakness’ (Otago Witness, 30 September 1871, p. 14).

The controversy surrounding the response to sickness on board the barque Guiding Star that arrived in Dunedin in early October 1871 is another example of mistrust and poor treatment of Chinese. (Lake Wakatip Mail, 4 October 1871, p. 2). Nearly 30 deaths occurred on the voyage due to ‘scurvy and dysentery’ (the diseases varied depending on the report) and the ship was quarantined on arrival. It took several days and several more Chinese deaths before the health officer declared there was no infection on board and allowed their release, yet more deaths occurred amongst the Chinese in hospital. There was general disquiet among the populace about allowing the Chinese to land in the city, and four more died once they were admitted to hospital (Cromwell Argus, 10 October 1871, p. 5).