Social change & rights

Samuel Marsden’s first Christian service

Marsden preached at Oihi Bay on Christmas Day 1814 under the protection of Ruatara, beginning the first permanent mission station in New Zealand.

Bishop Pompallier founds the Catholic mission

Jean Baptiste Pompallier landed at Hokianga, breaking the Protestant monopoly on missionary work and adding a French presence that unsettled the British.

Pai Mārire spreads

Te Ua Haumēne’s faith, blending Christian and Māori belief, spread from Taranaki across the North Island and was met with force by the Crown.

Education Act — free, secular and compulsory

A national primary system, free and compulsory for children aged 7 to 13, and deliberately secular to sidestep sectarian argument.

Women win the vote

New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world where women could vote in national elections. Kate Sheppard’s third petition carried nearly 32,000 signatures.

Old-age pensions introduced

One of the first state pensions anywhere — means-tested, character-tested, and closed to Chinese and other Asian residents.

Tohunga Suppression Act

An Act making it an offence to practise as a tohunga, aimed at prophets and healers whose authority the state saw as a threat to assimilation.

The Rātana movement rises

Te Hāhi Rātana

Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana built a faith and then a political machine around one demand: ratify the Treaty of Waitangi.

Social Security Act

Free hospital care, subsidised doctors’ visits and universal benefits from cradle to grave — among the most comprehensive welfare systems in the world at the time.

American troops arrive

With Singapore fallen and Japan advancing, around 100,000 US servicemen passed through New Zealand — a social shock as much as a military one.

The great Māori urban migration

Māori went from about 25 percent urban in 1945 to nearly 80 percent by 1975 — one of the fastest urbanisations recorded anywhere.

No Maoris, No Tour

A petition of 162,000 signatures opposed sending an All Black team to South Africa with Māori players excluded. The tour went ahead anyway.

Ngā Tamatoa formed

A group of young urban Māori activists, many university-educated, began confronting the state over te reo, the Treaty and racism — loudly and publicly.

The Māori language petition

Te petihana reo Māori

Ngā Tamatoa and Te Reo Māori Society delivered a 30,000-signature petition asking for te reo to be taught in schools. The date is now Māori Language Day.

The Springbok tour

Fifty-six days that split the country. Protesters occupied the pitch at Hamilton and stopped the game; by the final test, police in riot gear fought crowds outside Eden Park.

Homosexual Law Reform Act

Sex between men over 16 was decriminalised, after a sixteen-month campaign and one of the most vitriolic public debates in modern New Zealand.