The lethal influenza pandemic that struck New Zealand between October and December 1918 killed more than 8600 people in two months. No other event has claimed so many New Zealand lives in such a short time.
Many people believed that the second wave of the 1918 influenza
pandemic arrived in New Zealand in the form of ‘a deadly new virus’ on
board the RMS Niagara.
Many people blamed the liner Niagara for bringing a deadly new influenza virus to New Zealand. But six people had died of the flu in Auckland in the three days before it arrived, and the upsurge in cases in the city came two weeks later.
