Chronology for 1835-1899
The colonial redistribution of welfare: Dismantling hapū ora
This period opens with a politically and socio-economically robust iwi Māori population of around 80,000 people.[i] go to footnote Whenua and whakapapa form the basis of hapū and whānau wellbeing. W.H. Oliver argues that the first instrument of social policy in New Zealand was the system set up by Hobson in 1840 for the purchase and resale to settlers of Māori land.[ii] go to footnote Pākehā welfare was dependent on the continued dispossession of Māori land.[iii]go to footnote
The New Zealand Wars (1845–1872) either directly or indirectly impacted all iwi Māori throughout New Zealand.[iv] go to footnote Related legislative measures enabled the Crown to alienate Māori land and taonga across the motu prior to and beyond the next century via confiscation, land tenure reforms, local legislative measures and contested land purchases.
Iwi Māori assertions of rangatiratanga and resistance to the alienation of lands occurred across the motu, either physically, through the courts, via direct petitioning to the government or through the simple occupation of lands. Such measures led to some government concessions, such as the Sims Commission and South Island Landless Natives Act 1906,[v] go to footnote but after 1872 resistance also sometimes led to the government’s use of force in the later 19th century and well into the 20th century. (eg, Parihaka in 1881, Waima in 1898, Takaparawhāu in 1978).[vi] go to footnote
By the end of the 19th century Māori were a minority of the national. In 1896 the Māori population hit an all-time low of 42,650, compared to a Pākehā population of just over 700,000. Although the Māori population was recovering, their communities were reeling from land alienation, decline of resources, indebtedness, diseases and Māori communities survived on subsistence economies, with a growing dependence on paid work.
Māori were either excluded or faced barriers to accessing welfare support introduced during this period.
Chronology events
Displaying 101 - 110 of 270 events.
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Mainstreaming of Native schools began
Māori Education Conference leads to establishment of Māori Education Foundation.[i]
Date: 1955 Period: 1938-1971 -
Māori Trust Boards Act
Between 1922 and 1953, ten Māori trusts were established by statute to receive and administer compensation awarded by the Crown in settlement of various long-held Māori grievances. In 1955, as part of a move to update all existing Māori legislation, the Ac…
Date: 1955 Period: 1938-1971 -
Marriage Act
Did not recognise Māori customary practices.[i]
Date: 1955 Period: 1938-1971 -
National Committee on Māori Education
The Minister of Education appointed a National Committee on Māori Education (with majority Māori membership), which agreed there should be one system of State schooling for both Māori and Pākehā. The Committee was reconstituted as the National Advisory Com…
Date: 1955 Period: 1938-1971 -
First national directory of social services
Department of Māori Affairs published the first, and perhaps only, national directory of social services. The directory was considered incomplete but still included the details of some 360 voluntary organisations, as well as hospital boards and most govern…
Date: 1957 Period: 1938-1971 -
New Zealand Māori Wardens Association (NZMWA) inaugural meeting
The meeting was held at Rotorua early in December 1957. By the end of 1957 there were 376 Māori wardens who had been appointed through tribal committees.[i]
Date: 1957 Period: 1938-1971 -
Family benefit capitalisation introduced
Walter Nash initiated the capitalisation of family benefits in 1958 by allowing all of each child’s benefit to be paid in advance in a lump sum if this was used either for the purchase of a new house or for necessary additions to a house the family was alr…
Date: 1958 Period: 1938-1971 -
The first permanent social welfare officers
The officers began working for the Department of Social Security.[i]
Date: 1958 Period: 1938-1971 -
Māori Urban relocation programme
Introduced by the Department of Māori Affairs and consistent with the Hunn report which welcomed Māori urban migration as the quickest way of integrating Māori into Pākehā ways of life.
Date: 1960 Period: 1938-1971 -
Board of Health’s Māori Health Committee
Established as a result of R.J. Rose’s Maori-European Standards of Health report, the Board met for the first time on 25 January 1961.[i]
Date: 1961 Period: 1938-1971
Footnotes
- [i] go to main content ‘The first Māori census was attempted in 1857–58’. Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris, Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2014, p. 246. Earlier censuses were taken during the 1840s, however these were particular to regions and settlements and from there estimates were made by missionaries and colonists as to what the national population level might have been. Salmond and other prominent authors are sceptical of these figures and believe the numbers were greater. A census of Māori was attempted in 1867 but warfare prevented its completion. Tangata Whenua, Appendix One, p. 490.
- [ii] go to main content Cited in Margaret Tennant, Past Judgement: Social Policy in New Zealand History, co-edited with Bronwyn Dalley, 2004, p. 17.; ‘The April report: report of the Royal Commission on Social Policy’, Volume 1: New Zealand Today, New Zealand Royal Commission on Social Policy, Wellington, 1988, pp. 4–5.
- [iii] go to main content Tennant, 2004, p. 41.
- [iv] go to main content For more detailed information see the following link: https://teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-wars
- [v] go to main content For more information see: Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris, Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2014, pp. 256–301, and https://teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-wars
- [vi] go to main content Tangata Whenua, pp.322-3.