Page:Gillespies Beach Beginnings • Alexander (2010).pdf/38

 pub. Environmental consciousness wasn’t yet part of the national psyche.

Social occasions in the early days were few and far between at Gillespie’s, but as mentioned earlier, residents travelled further afield to Okarito and the 5-mile for special yearly celebrations, especially on Boxing Day and at Easter. Funerals were also large social events giving settlers the chance to meet, talk, and in the Irish way, for the men to down a few of whatever brew was on offer.

In the era of medicalised child-birth in which we now live, it seems amazing that these pioneer women gave birth to large families, often with only the assistance of another woman in the district. Margaret Vaughan Sullivan had eight children, small in comparison to the McBride’s ten, and other large families in nearby scattered localities. Married in 1870, she gave birth to eight children within a decade or so.

My mother’s autograph book has an entry that Michael, the youngest, was born in 1881.

In the absence of a doctor those suffering an illness either got better or died. Remedies were home-made with often the best on offer for children a tablespoon of brandy or whisky laced with sugar. Among these pioneer women in South Westland there were miscarriages and deaths both of newly born infants and of those giving birth. Married life wasn’t, as the old saying goes, a bed of roses, with many in a constant state of pregnancy over many years. Pregnancy was delicately referred to as being “in that condition.” It was not a topic for polite conversation.

The nearest hospital up in Greymouth had opened in a tent in 1865, until an actual building came into being in 1866. In 1877 it was moved to a new site by which time the hospital at Hokitika had also come into existence, but too far distant to be of use to southern settlers. The nearest doctor was eventually located at Ross, some considerable distance away, and later again, at Whataroa.