Total war & the welfare state
A second war, the Māori Battalion, and the moment in 1942 when Britain cannot defend the Pacific and the security relationship turns towards Washington. At home, full employment, state houses, and the beginning of the great Māori move to the cities.
16 events under way between 1939 and 1959
The first Labour government
Michael Joseph Savage led Labour to a landslide in 1935 and built the welfare state: state houses, guaranteed dairy prices, a 40-hour week and free hospital care under the Social Security Act.
WellingtonNew Zealand declares war on Germany
‘Where she goes, we go’ — 140,000 served overseas and nearly 12,000 died, from a population of 1.6 million.
The 28th (Māori) Battalion
Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū
A volunteer battalion organised by tribal area fought in Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy. Its casualty rate was almost 50% above the average for New Zealand infantry battalions.
Māori War Effort Organisation
Over 300 tribal committees took on Māori recruiting, war work and local food production; Māori felt that for the first time they bore real responsibility for their own affairs.
American troops arrive
With Singapore fallen and Japan advancing, more than 150,000 US servicemen were stationed in or visited New Zealand, bringing a considerable clash of cultures.
WellingtonThe great Māori urban migration
Māori went from 26 percent urban in 1945 to nearly 80 percent by 1986 — a migration Te Ara says has been described as the most rapid movement of any population.
The Ballantynes fire
Forty-one people, all but two of them staff, died in a department store fire in central Christchurch, most of them trapped on the upper floors.
ChristchurchStatute of Westminster adopted
Sixteen years after the British Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, New Zealand adopted it, the last of the Dominions to do so.
WellingtonKayforce sent to Korea
About 4,700 New Zealanders served in Kayforce and 1,300 on navy frigates during seven years in Korea; 45 died, 33 of them during the war.
The 1951 waterfront dispute
Lockout and strike ran for 151 days. Emergency regulations made it a crime even to give food to a watersider’s children.
Wellington waterfrontThe ANZUS treaty is signed
New Zealand, Australia and the United States signed a mutual security pact, giving New Zealand the American security commitment it had sought since the fall of Singapore.
The Homer Tunnel opens the road to Milford Sound
After eighteen years of intermittent work, the 1.2 km Homer Tunnel gave Milford Sound its first road connection.
Homer SaddleEdmund Hillary summits Everest
An Auckland beekeeper and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Everest, and the news was released in London on the morning of the Queen’s coronation.
AucklandThe 1953–54 royal tour
Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit New Zealand. Perhaps three in four New Zealanders saw her in person.
The Tangiwai railway disaster
A lahar from Mount Ruapehu struck the rail bridge over the Whangaehu River minutes before the Wellington–Auckland express reached it. The bridge gave way under the train and 151 people died.
TangiwaiThe Auckland Harbour Bridge opens
Four lanes across the Waitematā linked the city to the North Shore, and traffic quickly outgrew them.
Waitematā Harbour