The candidate’s response to the second part of the essay question could include:
The development of extensive pastoralism helped create an oligarchic political structure. The mercantilism of commercial centres like Auckland joined forces with pastoralists in the pursuit of self interest.
It was not until the election of the Liberal government in 1890 that the economic and social interests of the working class were addressed by political structures.
Access to large amounts of land and the ability to take advantage of emerging technologies saw the emergence of a ‘landed gentry’, a concentration of wealth and a matching lifestyle. By 1890 about 65% of freehold land was owned by some 600 individuals, families and companies
The enrichment of the Pakeha economy was at the expense of Māori and the consequent diminishing of their economy. The Native Land Courts created significant social as well as economic problems for many Māori .
The emergence of intensive pastoralism helps create the family farm and subsequent communities centred on the local co-operative dairy factory. Such economic change has an impact on the political structure of the country as these small farmers help support the Liberal party
The economic downturn of the late 1870s and through the 80s has a considerable impact on both the political and social life of this country.
The economic changes of the 1880s led to political instability and to a growth in class consciousness. Many settlers came to resent the misleading propaganda of New Zealand as a paradise for workers and investors.
The sweating scandals of the 1880s, which had been largely confined to Dunedin, had a big impact on national politics. Pākehā New Zealanders were shocked that these Old World evils had made their way to New Zealand
The ministries of the 1880s led by Hall, Whitaker, Atkinson, Stout and Vogel, tried various measures to alleviate the social distress and economic difficulties.
Politicians practised retrenchment – ending borrowing and cutting back on government spending. This did little to improve the well being of the economy or people in the short term.
The Hall and Atkinson ‘Conservative’ governments cut costs and expenditure, raised taxes, borrowed further overseas, tried to settle more people on the land, placed tariffs on some imports to protect local industry, and encouraged the work of charitable aid boards. In many of its actions the government favoured the rural interests of the large-scale pastoralists, so land monopoly became a social, economic and political issue in the 1880s.
Atkinson considered pensions, national insurance and assistance to small settlers but little was achieved as the scheme had not been adopted by Parliament.
There were calls to limit Chinese immigration and a poll tax on Chinese immigrants was introduced in 1881.
Stout-Vogel government overhauled welfare policy in 1885 providing limited state assistance.
Improvements to the legal rights of women occurred in the 1880s – fairer divorce laws, franchise bills were introduced.
Responses to social issues came more from individuals, eg Stout’s attempts to deal with larrikinism; or from social organisations such as the Salvation Army and WCTU.
The 1887 Election had the highest voter turnout ever. The Vogel / Stout ministry was decisively defeated. Political Reform Associations demanded a halt to borrowing. The Governor invited Atkinson to form a government. Atkinson needed support from a diverse range of MPs who demanded retrenchment. This became known as the ‘Scarecrow Ministry’.
Overall the government did not have as much impact on the economic and social situation as many people wanted. There were many overseas constraints and perhaps some limited thinking among New Zealand politicians.
Some radical ideas did come to fore, particularly relating to leave and working conditions. There was an increasing desire for economic stability and perhaps self-sufficiency, and the evolution of a social and political will for more interventionist government that led to the election of a Liberal government, which attempted to do much more, especially for small farmers, by breaking up the large estates.
Unions gained a legal basis in 1878 and became popular in the 1880s among skilled and unskilled workers – Seaman’s Union, two small coal unions 1884, Shearer’s Union 1886, the American-based Knights of Labour formed a society in New Zealand in 1887 and helped organise unskilled and semi-skilled workers. Unionism collapsed in 1890 with the failure of the Maritime Strike.
Some of the reforms instituted by the Liberals to deal with the economic and social changes in the 1890s were:
Land
Land and Income Tax 1891 (taxed unimproved land or absentee owners).
Department of Agriculture 1892 (to educate farmers).
Lands for Settlement Act 1892 (lands could be repurchased by the state for closer settlement – but private subdivision opened up much more land than this did).
Advances to Settlers Act (state loans to farmers for development – not Māori).
Large-scale purchase of Māori land to make it available for farming.
Labour
Truck Act 1891 (workers to be paid in cash not goods).
Department of Labour 1892 (created to inspect factories and help find employment).
Factories Act 1894 (restricted hours for women, girls and boys, set holiday entitlement, health and safety measures).
Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1894 (peaceful settlement of industrial disputes and encourage unionism). There were no strikes in New Zealand for the following ten years and the system lasted for 70 years+.
Topic Two: Essay Five
Describe the various ways in which European and Chinese men and women could experience racial and gender discrimination between 1840 and 1900.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the attempts of individuals and organisations to end such discrimination by the end of the nineteenth century.
The candidate’s response to the first part of the essay question could include:
Racial and gender discrimination was evident through this period. Discrimination on the grounds of gender reflected societal views on the roles of men and women in colonial society. The neo-nationalist notion that some races were superior to others, and that the emerging society of 19th century New Zealand was to be constructed to reflect the cultural values and aspirations of a ‘Better Britain’, was powerful and pervasive.
The Wakefield settlements were peopled by settlers who had been selected on the basis of status and race. The Irish were actively discouraged as they did not meet Wakefield’s ‘ideal society’. In the period 1840-1850 the percentage of Irish in the New Zealand Company’s settlements was 1.8%. The percentage of English was 82.1%. Contrast these figures against the percentage of Irish in a non-Wakefield settlement – Auckland – and there is a significant change: 35.9% Irish and 45.7% English.
Large numbers of Irish came to this country in search of gold and the changing societal dynamics were most evident on the West Coast where tension between the Irish and supporters of the British Crown resulted in a riot involving over 1500 miners.
The New Zealand government directed its efforts to attract migrants to this country to the protestant north of Ireland.
Active discrimination in the work place which saw the Irish passed over in favour of other nationalities.
Little evidence of discrimination against Jews. Julius Vogel was a prominent provincial and national politician who was Jewish
Migrants from Croatia met with discrimination. In 1898 the Kauri Gum Industry Act introduced kauri-gum reserves for British subjects only, and licences for gum-digging. Laws passed in 1908 and 1910 further restricted Dalmatians’ rights by confining digging licences to British subjects.
Chinese were subjected to significant discrimination on the grounds of race. Invited to this country to prospect for gold on the Otago goldfields the level of discrimination grew with their numbers.
As early as 1857 an anti-Chinese committee was established in Nelson. Other groups such as the White Race League and the Anti-Asiatic League were also established
Anti-Chinese acts were passed.
In 1881 a £10 poll tax was placed on each Chinese immigrant, and their numbers were restricted to one person for every 10 tons of ship’s cargo. These figures were raised in 1896 to £100 poll tax and 200 tons of cargo.
In 1892 naturalisation as New Zealand citizens became free for all except Chinese. In 1908 naturalisation for Chinese was abolished and did not resume until 1952.
In 1907 a reading test in English was imposed for Chinese immigrants.
Chinese were specifically excluded from the old-age pension (1898).
The major roles of Pākehā women as seen by colonial society were those of wife, mother, worker, helpmeet and as a civilising influence on men. To ensure that these roles were maintained, women suffered a good deal of discrimination in the work place, in their relationships with men and in their exclusion from the political process.
A high proportion of Pākehā women were married and ‘embedded’ in families, childbearing, and unpaid domestic labour. A wife had no separate legal existence. Judith Elphick Malone – upon marriage, women became third-class citizens before the law.
Marriage laws were discriminatory and unequal. Before 1884, married women had no control of property that they brought to a marriage, or of their wages. A wife had no legal say in the control of income or savings. If a wife chose to leave her husband she stood to lose her children, home and maintenance.
It was much harder for a woman to gain a divorce – first allowed in 1867. A man could divorce his wife for ‘simple adultery’ but a woman could divorce her husband only for ‘aggravated adultery’.
The Contagious Diseases Act passed in 1869 was regarded by women as a blatant example of sexual double standards and discrimination. The Act legalised the arrest, forcible examination for venereal disease and imprisonment of suspected prostitutes until they were certified ‘clean’ of the disease. The male customers of these prostitutes were not subjected to any such inspection.
Women did much unpaid domestic work in the 19th century. Paid employment was usually lower-paid work, with many working as servants or in farming, and later in factories.
There was significant gender difference in employment. Women were not expected to do heavy farm work, mining, or labouring and mainly worked in a very restricted range of occupations.
Primary schooling became compulsory in 1877, but girls’ participation was less than boys’ and the curriculum was designed to ensure girls stayed in the domestic sphere. Girls often started primary school later and withdrew earlier.
Women could not vote in government elections until 1893 (disenfranchised) or serve on a jury.
Male alcohol consumption and violence affected many women and their families.
During the 1880s women were exploited in manufacturing jobs being forced to work long hours and were paid low wages, much lower than men (sweating).
The women campaigning for suffrage were faced with public derision and scorn by anti-suffrage and liquor lobby supporters – both men and women.
Women were not allowed to serve on a jury if married.
The candidate’s response to the second part of the essay question could include:
The legislation that was passed to deter Chinese immigration was not repealed until well into the 20th century. Anti-Chinese prejudice continued to reflect the social Darwinism of the late 19th century and the random murder of Joe Kum Yung by Lionel Terry in 1905 was one of the outcomes of such thinking.
Efforts by Bishop Moran to build a separate education system for Catholics in response to the 1877 Education Act were successful
A mouthpiece for Irish Catholics – the Tablet – was founded in 1873
Discrimination against migrants from countries other than Britain and Germany/Scandinavia continued to be evident by the end of the century.
The discrimination faced by many women, and the fight to remove it, began to develop its own impetus:
Marriage laws were gradually changed in women’s favour during the latter part of the century.
Deserted wives gained the right to their wages and property in 1860.
The Married Women’s Property Act 1884 gave married women the same rights to their property and wages as their husbands had.
In 1885, women who owned property gained the right to vote in Hospital and Charitable Aid Board elections.
The 1898 Divorce Act gave equal access to divorce for men and women, and the Testators Family Maintenance Act of 1900 forced husbands to pay some maintenance towards the upkeep of wives and children.
Women’s participation in the paid workforce was limited, though growing, by 1900. Individual women sought careers from the 1880s as teachers or nurses as the educational levels of girls gradually improved.
University study became possible for girls in the later part of the 19th century. The first woman university graduate was Kate Edger, who graduated BA in 1877. About half of the Arts students at Canterbury University College in the 1890s were women. Women were beginning to enter professions such as law from 1896.
Women were able to serve on various local bodies such as school committees by 1877 and could vote in local body elections from 1889, with some property restrictions.
The Employment of Females Act 1881 regulated working conditions for women but it was impossible to enforce due to the difficulties the Inspectors had in collecting evidence, and evasive and uncooperative employers.
Harriet Morrison led the Tailoresses’ Union formed in Dunedin and in Christchurch a women’s clothing workers union was formed. Other unions sprang up for women who worked as waitresses, boot machinists and domestic servants.
Labour reforms were introduced by the Liberal Government in the early 1890s and the sweating issue largely went away with the Liberal laws and improved economic conditions of 1895.
Increasing questioning by some women of their limited roles led to an emergence of a ‘feminist culture’ in the main centres. Articles and debates occurred during the 1860s and 70s about women’s rights. Mary Ann Muller (Femina), Mary Taylor, and Mary Colclough (Polly Plum) wrote about the injustice of the inequalities between men and women before the law and within the constitution. This led to the establishment of organisations such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1885, which campaigned for the prohibition of alcohol because of its effects on family life and society.
They also campaigned for the purity of the home, religious teaching in schools and engaged in welfare work with prostitutes, prisoners, the homeless and the hungry. The focus of the WCTU was the welfare of women and children.
The WCTU also dominated the franchise campaign along with other suffrage organisations such as the Women’s Franchise Leagues. Three major petitions were gathered in 1891, 1892 and 1893. By 1893 a law was passed by Parliament giving women over the age of 21 the vote. However, women couldn’t stand for Parliament and they tended to vote as men did.
The Liberal Government placed far greater importance on ‘progressive issues’ such as the legislation that made it easier to divorce violent or wayward husbands, legislation that forced ex-husbands to pay some maintenance, the Old Age Pension, public health reform, labour legislation and the welfare of the nation’s children.
Feminist campaigning continued after the success of 1893. A ‘Parliament of Women’ organised by Kate Sheppard was held in 1896 and it set up the National Council of Women (NCW). Sheppard saw the NCW as a voice for women in the affairs of New Zealand, since women were still excluded from becoming MPs. The NCW aimed to pressure the Government into passing laws to ensure women would gain equality and acceptance in the workplace and local and central government. Lady Stout, Mrs Schnackenberg and Mrs Sievwright coordinated the numerous women’s societies that sprung up after 1893. The NCW wanted humanitarian laws in areas such as the care of children and prison reform. It also pressed for the removal of women’s continuing political and legal disabilities and the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act. Little success was achieved by the NCW in securing law changes.
Meri Mangakahia sought rights for Māori women through Kotahitanga; in 1895, Te Hauke enabled Māori women to discuss land matters and equal rights for women within Kotahitanga.
The growth of the ‘cult of domesticity’ associated with Truby King and the Plunket Society reaffirmed and highlighted the need for ‘scientific motherhood’ and saw women’s traditional roles continue. With the emphasis on domesticity, where the infant’s welfare was to be put above all else, the separate roles of men and women became more polarised with the wife in the home and the husband in the public world of work.
There had been progress but women were not emancipated to any great extent. Most women were still tied to marriage and children. Few women had economic independence from men though there were greater economic opportunities in New Zealand, which some took advantage of.
The double standard in attitudes to sexuality was still strong.
There was limited social freedom and expanded roles for women with the ongoing work of the WCTU, the appearance of the educated ‘new woman’, the dress reform movement and the wider use of bicycles by women.
Topic Two: Essay Six
Describe changing settlement patterns within New Zealand between 1840 and 1900.
Evaluate the extent to which these changing settlement patterns resulted in the emergence of an urban society by 1900.
The candidate’s response to the first part of the essay question could include:
Until the 1860s, most people lived in the North Island. Two-thirds of the Māori population lived north of Taupo, and most migrants went to either the Wakefield settlements or to Auckland.
1860–1890 was a period of “Middle Island ascendancy” as the gold rush, pastoralism, and Vogel attracted settlers to the South Island. War in the North Island also helped the growth of the Pakeha population in the South Island.
By 1896, the North Island was dominant again. The effects of the “Long Depression” were more acutely obvious in the South and the timber industry, refrigeration, and confiscation had opened up the North Island for farming. The last major gold strike was in the Coromandel region.
The trend towards urbanisation was first apparent in the 1874 census
Till 1840, most Pākehā lived on the coastal North Island. Many were itinerant and most, if not all, had a close relationship with Māori. Some were “Pakeha-Māori ”: missionaries, sealers, whalers, traders, or worked in timber industry, etc.
1840–1860 saw the development of small-scale coastal settlements. These were the planned Wakefield settlements and Auckland. Pastoralism began in the hinterland beyond these settlements.
1860–1900 was the period of great territorial expansion of much wider Pākehā settlement with large waves of South Island immigration and the development of inland towns and cities in Waikato, Manawatu, Southern Hawkes Bay and Taranaki. This Pākehā expansion was largely due to confiscation, refrigeration, the timber industry and the railways.
Settlement patterns reflected the different waves of immigration to this country. The original Wakefield settlements enjoyed significantly higher numbers of settlers of English descent, while the gold rushes saw large numbers of Irish on the West Coast where, in 1871, they almost equalled the English. In that same year the number of people of Scottish descent in Otago and Southland was over 50%.
The settlement patterns for Māori remain consistent through this period. Most Māori lived in rural areas of the North Island and two thirds lived north of Taupo
The emergence of new technologies such as refrigeration had considerable impact on settlement patterns with the establishment of dairy farms. Milk produced on these farms was processed at co-operative dairy factories which as they grew in size created communities of workers and subsequent schools and commercial activity.
Freezing works were built to process animal carcasses and so helped create new patterns of settlement with the development of working class communities
The candidate’s response to the second part of the essay question could include:
There was gradual urbanisation of the Pākehā population; but even by 1900, Pākehā New Zealand was still largely rural (54.4 percent in 1901).
Four main urban centres of near equal importance had emerged: Dunedin, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington
Each centre was dominant in one region, and rates of growth reflected the varying growth rates in the hinterland
Urban centres had developed particular spheres of activity – industrial and residential. Clear evidence of housing reflecting the emergence of a working class. Social differential a characteristic of urban settlement.
Buildings reflected government and community activities. Banks, telephone exchanges, churches, universities, schools, leisure and sports.
Some centres reflected ethnic variation in immigration, eg Dunedin (Jewish, Chinese)
Economic recession of the 1880s sees movement of people into urban areas in search of employment.
Industrialization had helped in growth of urban societies but with industrialization had emerged social problems such as: alcoholism – male and female drunkenness; gambling; sweating.
Towns and cities in the new colony grew in a rapid and haphazard manner. They soon showed many of the worst features of European cities. Rubbish and sewage accumulated, polluting the water supply and leading to epidemics of disease.
In 1864 the Otago Daily Times complained that Dunedin had ‘reproduced with faithful accuracy the wretched tenements and filthy back slums of an English town’.
In the same year Auckland’s Herald attacked ‘those abominable nests of squalid filth, the rookeries of small houses in the back lanes and slums of the City’.
Urban society is characterized by opportunities for leisure activities: playing areas for cricket, rugby and other ball games established.
The changing patterns of urban work, earnings and domestic life allows for increased leisure time. Picture palaces – cinemas – are built (eg Dunedin 1897).
Choirs, bands, orchestras and amateur operatic societies flourish in response to growing urbanization.
Women’s activities are widened in scope.
Emergence of an urban society sees educational opportunities grow, particularly for women. By 1890s half of New Zealand university students were women.
