Depression riots

New Zealand depended overwhelmingly on agricultural exports, and from 1930 export prices began to plummet, falling 45% by 1933. NZHistory says unemployment rose to 12% of the registered workforce in 1933, and that those who kept their jobs often had their wages cut by as much as 20%; Te Ara's economic history suggests the true unemployment rate may have been over 20%. Prime Minister George Forbes decided that the unemployed would have to work for their meagre relief payments, and relief schemes often required men to travel long distances for small pay. Forbes also imposed 10% wage cuts on public servants. In September 1931 his United Party formed a coalition with Reform, and the coalition's relief schemes imposed harsh conditions on the unemployed. Widespread protests were generally ignored, which prompted more militant action by the Unemployed Workers' Movement, the Communist Party and other groups.

Trouble began in Dunedin. On Saturday 9 January 1932 a procession of unemployed, many of them women, marched to the offices of the Otago Hospital Board to demand relief. When the board's officials refused, the crowd rushed Wardell Brothers' grocery store in George Street and smashed its front window, but police held them back. The tension eased after 800 food parcels were handed out for the weekend. On 9 April, after the Hospital Board again refused help, protesters threw stones at the mayor's relief depot and tried to storm the board's offices before police with batons dispersed them. NZHistory places the April trouble in Dunedin within the 'angry autumn' of 1932.

On the evening of 14 April post and telegraph workers marched to the Auckland Town Hall to protest against wage cuts. Unemployed relief workers joined them, and the crowd grew to around 15,000. Turned away from the overflowing hall, some scuffled with the police guarding the entrance. When Jim Edwards, a communist who had helped set up the Unemployed Workers' Movement, rose to speak, apparently to urge calm, he was struck down by a police baton. NZHistory says the crowd then erupted and surged down Queen Street; Edwards's biographer, Tony Simpson, says the crowd rioted after Edwards, despite a serious head wound, spoke again to urge restraint and then went to hospital at his friends' insistence. Armed with fence palings and stones from a mini-golf course in Civic Square, rioters smashed hundreds of shop windows and looted jewellery, liquor, clothing and tobacco. Police reinforced by armed navy sailors and volunteers regained control of the central city several hours later. NZHistory records hundreds injured and 35 arrested for looting; Simpson gives about 200 injured and over 40 arrested. The next day 98 Territorial Army troops from Waikato and a thousand special constables reinforced the police, but that night crowds in Karangahape Road clashed with police, more windows were broken, and there were another 50 injuries and 35 arrests.

The government rushed the Public Safety Conservation Act through Parliament, and it received assent on 20 April 1932, but it did not prevent a riot in Wellington on 10 May. That day 4,000 protesters marched to Parliament, and after an unsuccessful deputation to Forbes part of the crowd rushed along Lambton Quay, Willis Street and Manners Street, breaking shop windows. The next day police charged and batoned protesters at a Cuba Street rally. NZHistory also records disturbances in Christchurch in early May, while the 1966 Encyclopaedia says Christchurch alone of the four main centres saw no unemployed riots, crediting its efficient relief services. Special constables patrolled the streets, outdoor meetings were banned and shop windows were boarded up for weeks. Many people were prosecuted, and sentences were heavy. Edwards hid for six weeks before giving himself up, and on 1 August he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour for taking part in a riot. Te Ara's history of public protest notes that Dunedin police acted with restraint while police actions in Auckland and Wellington inflamed events; officially, the protesters were blamed.

The Public Safety Conservation Act 1932 allowed the government to assume virtually unlimited powers during a proclaimed state of emergency. It was used only twice: by the first Labour government on the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, and by the first National government during the 1951 waterfront dispute (see The 1951 waterfront dispute). In the 1935 election voters rejected the coalition, which won 34% of the vote, in protest at its harsh policies and in response to the economic and social impact of the depression. Labour won 46% of the vote and 53 of the 80 seats (see The first Labour government). It increased wages and launched public works and state-housing programmes, and the Social Security Act 1938 extended benefits for the aged, sick and unemployed (see Social Security Act).