Post by NZBC on May 1, 2007 20:46:06 GMT 12
Immigration and human quarantineAt the cemetery area you will see a memorial to people that are buried on Matiu/Somes Island. Most of thesepeople died here while in quarantine with diseases (small pox,typhoid,influenza) that they caught duringtheir long sea voyages to New Zealand. Many others died on the journey and were buried at sea. Read the memorial.Why do you think so many children died on the island? Mokopuna is the small island that you can see to the northwest. Kim Lee, a 56 year-old Chinese fruiterer suspected of having leprosy (a highly infectious disease),was quarantined on Matiu/Somes Island in 1903. He was soon moved to Mokopuna where he lived in the cave on the eastern side. Food was delivered by boat or by flying fox when the sea was rough.Kim Lee died a few months later.Imagine a life of isolation on Mokopuna, with packing cases for furniture and a cave for shelter. What could Kim have done/used on the island? Smoke House remains (a pile of thick concrete and bricks) south of the wharf.When immigrants lefttheir ship they were made to sit in the smoke house for ten minutes to get rid of lice.Thomas Heath was a cook on one of the immigrant ships that arrived in 1873. He remembers,¡°How the poor little ones chokedand coughed with the fumes.¡±The barracks building (half of one building remains) and the hospital were built for the immigrants.Immigration and human quarantine At the cemetery area you will see a memorial to people that are buried on Matiu/Somes Island. Most of thesepeople died here while in quarantine with diseases (small pox,typhoid,influenza) that they caught duringtheir long sea voyages to New Zealand. Many others died on the journey and were buried at sea.
