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 91 - 100 of 270 events.
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Labour Government defeated by National
First Māori woman MP, Iriaka Ratana (until 1969), elected.[i] Throughout her 20-year political career Iriaka focused much on the welfare needs of Māori.[ii] Māori Electoral Roll established for the Māori seats.[iii]
Date: 1949 Period: 1938-1971 -
Māori Welfare Division
Comprised 63 tribal executives and 381 committees under the 1945 Act, headed by Rangi Royal.
Date: 1949 Period: 1938-1971 -
Establishment of Māori Boys and Māori Girls’ trade training hostels
From the 1930s, as Māori began moving to urban centres, concerns arose among iwi Māori, mission organisations and the state about the safe accommodation of young Māori girls and boys in the country’s cities. By the 1950s, trade training institutions such a…
Date: 1950 Period: 1938-1971 -
Māori Purposes Act 1950
This iteration of the Māori Purposes Act excluded Māori customary marriage from legal benefit qualifications,[i] although family benefits were paid for all children whether legitimate or not.
Date: 1950 Period: 1938-1971 -
Establishment of the Māori Women’s Welfare League (MWWL)
The League undertook myriad community-based voluntary welfare activities. In its first few years it advocated for te reo Māori in schools, culturally responsive hospital services and preserving Māori arts. The League brought Māori women together to address…
Date: 1951 Period: 1938-1971 -
MWWL survey of Auckland housing for Māori
Survey provides evidence of Māori need for housing.[i]
Date: 1952 Period: 1938-1971 -
Enquiry into Māori offending
Growth of Māori delinquency encouraged the Justice Department to undertake a special inquiry in 1953/4 which examined all Māori offending.[i]
Date: 1953 Period: 1938-1971 -
Child Welfare Amendment Act (No.2)
Targeted the allegedly central role of girls and young women in fostering illicit relationships by creating the new category of ‘delinquency’ for all adolescents who committed indecent acts, or allowed them to be performed on them.[i]
Date: 1954 Period: 1938-1971 -
The Mazengarb Report
The Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents criticised films, comics and declining standards of family and religious life. Later described as leading to a ‘moral panic’.[i]
Date: 1954 Period: 1938-1971 -
Adoption Act
This Act and its 1962 Amendment upheld the principle of secrecy via ‘closed adoption’. Legislation inferred the transparency inherent to ‘whangai practices [was] somehow detrimental to the child and their whangai parents.’[i]
Date: 1955 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.