Economy & industry
23 events between 1803–1987, shown on the map in this colour.
The southern sealing rush
Gangs of sealers worked the far south so intensively that fur seal colonies collapsed within a generation — one of the earliest European industries in New Zealand.
Dusky SoundJacky Guard’s whaling station at Te Awaiti
John Guard said he began whaling in Tory Channel in 1827, one of the first shore stations in an industry that placed small mixed Māori–European settlements around the coast.
Te Awaiti, Tory ChannelGold found at Gabriel’s Gully
Gabriel Read’s find set off New Zealand’s first major gold rush and, by the mid-1860s, made Dunedin the country’s largest town.
Gabriel’s Gully, TuapekaWest Coast gold rush
About 30,000 people poured onto the West Coast between 1864 and 1867, and Hokitika became the busy main town and port of the rush.
HokitikaThe Lyttelton rail tunnel opens
A 2.6 km bore through the rim of an extinct volcano finally joined Christchurch to its port; Te Ara and NZHistory describe it as the first tunnel in the world driven through a volcano.
LytteltonVogel’s public works and immigration scheme
Julius Vogel borrowed heavily in London — £10 million by 1876 — to build railways, roads and telegraph lines, and to bring in about 100,000 assisted migrants.
New Zealand connected to the world by cable
A submarine cable from Sydney landed near Nelson, linking New Zealand to London by telegraph and cutting communication with Europe from months to hours.
Cable Bay (Wakapuaka), near NelsonFirst refrigerated cargo sails for London
The Dunedin left Port Chalmers with 4,000–5,000 frozen carcasses (sources differ) and reached London 98 days later with the cargo sound. Te Ara notes the voyage is seen as a watershed in New Zealand’s economic development.
Port ChalmersThe North Island Main Trunk line is completed
Prime Minister Joseph Ward drove the last spike at Manganuioteao, formally opening the railway between Auckland and Wellington.
ManganuioteaoThe Waihi strike
Six months of confrontation at the goldmine ended when police and strikebreakers stormed the miners’ hall and Frederick Evans was fatally injured.
WaihiBrightwater’s chicken power
A Brightwater mill owner lit the district’s first electric streetlights, and local memory has it that roosting hens switched Brightwater’s lamps on and off.
BrightwaterThe Great Strike
Watersiders and miners struck around the country; the government enrolled mounted special constables — farmers and farm workers on horseback — who took back the wharves for strike-breakers.
Wellington waterfrontThe Ōtira tunnel pierces the Southern Alps
An 8.5 km tunnel under Arthur’s Pass completed the transalpine railway between Christchurch and Greymouth, and was then the longest tunnel outside the Alps.
ŌtiraDepression riots
Unemployed relief workers smashed and looted shops down Queen Street, after earlier trouble in Dunedin. Wellington had its own riot in May.
Queen Street, AucklandThe 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 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 SaddleThe Auckland Harbour Bridge opens
Four lanes across the Waitematā linked the city to the North Shore, and traffic quickly outgrew them.
Waitematā HarbourThe Aramoana begins the roll-on roll-off ferry service
The country’s first roll-on roll-off ferry let cars and rail wagons drive straight on and off, joining the two islands into one freight network.
Cook StraitBenmore dam and the Cook Strait cable
The largest earth dam in the country was built to feed a high-voltage link under Cook Strait, sending South Island hydro power north.
Waitaki ValleyDecimal currency day
Pounds, shillings and pence became dollars and cents, promoted by a cartoon character called Mr Dollar.
Britain joins the EEC
Britain had been New Zealand’s great market for lamb, butter and cheese since the first frozen-meat shipment in 1882. Now that market began to close.
Rogernomics — the economy is deregulated
A Labour government floated the dollar, removed farm subsidies and tariffs, and sold state assets in a radical programme of market liberalisation.
The 1987 sharemarket crash
The New Zealand market fell further than almost any other and took years longer to recover, badly burning many small ‘mum and dad’ investors.
Auckland