SPANISH-INFLUENZA

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 415, 4 October 1918, Page 1

SPANISH-INFLUENZA

Writing from England, on July oth, a Taranaki soldier who is training for the E.FC., describes the ravages of influenza, known as the Spanish " flu," in his squadron. We are having a gay old time with it," he writes. "It catches chaps on parade, and bowls them clean out. Every flight of every squadron in these parts is reduced to about half strength. Yesterday, on wing parade, the Wing S.M.' was just giving the order " Stand at Ease," when he collapsed, and just after that a chap in ' C,' two places from me, fell backwards in a dead faint. They seem to be effected for a short time only though—the W.B.M. came on parade again, and the cadet is quite all right. An attack of the malady seems to be a soft day or two in bed, and a few parades and lectures missed. I don't mind missing the parades, but the lectures, or some of them anyway, are rather necessary. The weather here is sometimes like the Taranaki weather, and if this is summer I hope to be somewhere else in winter."