Disease in New Plymouth

Conditions in New Plymouth deteriorated during the fighting of 1860-61. Many settlers from the surrounding district moved into town for protection. Soon diseases such as scarlet fever posed a greater threat than warfare. By the time the truce was signed in March 1861 about 120 inhabitants of New Plymouth had died of disease. Richard Foreman lost his wife and three of their children to disease, probably scarlet fever, in just six weeks.