Chronology for 1938-1971
Assimilating into universal welfare
Labour’s policies were underpinned by a principle of universality and a vision of the nation as a classless community. Rich, middle-class and poor were linked by the same national system of state support and social services; superannuation, however small, was to be available to every aged person who was not already on another benefit and was an important symbol of citizenship. The ‘system as a whole was removed from ‘the taint of charity’ and became a source of national pride’.[i] go to footnote
This was a period of great demographic change for iwi Māori with the mass migration of its rural population to the cities of New Zealand. The need for workers in essential industries and the post-war labour boom provided rangatahi and whānau Māori with ample employment, 'incomes that were almost equal to those of Pākehā, and access to family welfare benefits that boosted the incomes of large families by around 50 percent.'[ii] go to footnote However, the financial rewards were offset by one or both parents working long hours to cover the costs of city living and it exposed Māori to discrimination. The Department of Māori Affairs played a welfare role in the lives of whānau Māori during this period, with a policy of integrating Māori into the social fabric of ‘mainstream’ New Zealand society. Through housing allocation policies attempts were made to pepper pot Māori in Pākehā suburban streets.[iii] go to footnote Young Māori women who moved to the cities for essential industry work or single rangatahi simply moving to the city for work opportunities were directed into hostels.
Before the 1950s, child welfare agencies endeavoured to keep Māori children with their families or in their own tribal area.[iv] go to footnote In the 1950s, Māori became a disproportionate minority in all areas of child welfare work with a steady growth in Māori juvenile delinquency with recorded Māori offending at three or four times the rate of Pākehā, particularly in the 15–20 age.[v] go to footnote
Chronology events
Displaying 21 - 30 of 270 events.
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Māori Representation Act
Māori acquired four seats in the House of Representatives.
Date: 1867 Period: 1835-1899 -
Native Schools Act
Native Schools Act 1867 provided subsidies for rural Māori communities that offered land for a school site and contributed to the teachers’ salaries. This was a parsimonious measure, paid for partly by withdrawal or diminution of government contributions t…
Date: 1867 Period: 1835-1899 -
Neglected and Criminal Children Act
Authorised residential institutions which formed the basis of government social services for children in 19th century New Zealand.[i] Enabled Provincial Councils to establish ‘industrial schools’ to which the courts could commit neglected, indigent or deli…
Date: 1867 Period: 1835-1899 -
Earliest records of special courts for children
Until the early 1900s children committed to state care in New Zealand passed through the regular adult court system, normally the magistrate’s court.[i]
Date: 1870 Period: 1835-1899 -
Treaty of Waitangi rights judged a legal nullity
by Chief Justice Prendergast.
Date: 1877 Period: 1835-1899 -
Jurisdiction over industrial schools
This change of jurisdiction from the Department of Justice to the Department of Education signalled a shift from residential schools as primarily punitive institutions to more reformative institutions. [i]
Date: 1880 Period: 1835-1899 -
Native Succession Act
Māori women’s property rights took a step backwards in 1881 when the Native Succession Act created the potential to discriminate against Māori women’s property rights under customary marriage.[i]
Date: 1881 Period: 1835-1899 -
Infants Guardianship and Contracts Act
Legislation was mainly concerned with the welfare of the child from 1887. The Infants Guardianship and Contracts Act 1887 listed three factors judges were to consider when awarding custody: 1. welfare of the child; 2. parents’ behaviour; 3. parents’ wishes…
Date: 1887 Period: 1835-1899 -
Developments in welfare and income provision
This decade saw the enactments of women’s suffrage, labour legislation, and old-age pensions.[i] Hospitals existed as a charitable aid system and pensions were available for the aged and widowed, alongside existing provision by religious and other voluntar…
Date: 1890 Period: 1835-1899 -
Māori Parliament established
Establishment of Kotahitanga o Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Meri Te Tai Mangakahia campaigned for women’s suffrage. The first woman to address the Kotahitanga Parliament (in May 1893), she noted that Māori women were landowners, and entitled to political represen…
Date: 1892 Period: 1835-1899
Footnotes
- [i] go to main content Tim Garlick, Social Developments: An organizational history of the Ministry of Social Development and its predecessors, 1860-2011, Steele Roberts Aotearoa, Wellington, 2012, p.70.
- [ii] go to main content Melissa Matutina Williams, Panguru and the City, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2010, p. 195.
- [iii] go to main content Urbanisation – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand
- [iv] go to main content Bronwyn Dalley, Family Matters, Wellington, 1998, p. 6.
- [v] go to main content Dalley, 1998, p. 192.