The development of Employment Acts in New Zealand

New Zealand

The geography

New Zealand lies on the south-east edge of the Pacific Ocean. Its next Neighbors the Fidschi Isles and Australia are about 2000 km far away. It is about 270,500 km2 wide, this is about the same size as the British Isles or Japan. Nevertheless only about 3,7 Million people live on the two islands. The main Islands, the North- and South Island are divided by the Cooks Strait. ¾ of New Zealand are 200 meters above sea level ore higher. The highest mountain is the Cook Mountain with 3.735 m. On both islands are a lot of fertile plains, rivers and seas.

The myth of Maui

The myth of Maui has been told since the Polynesians reached New Zealand. It is a story that leads one in the mythological world of the Maori:

Maui, half man half god, went out fishing with his brothers. He led them deep into unknown waters in the south. There he took the jaw-bone of his grandmother as a hook and spilled blood from his own nose for bait. With this magic mixture he caught a giant fish, Te Ika a Maui - the fish of Maui. This giant fish became the North island of New Zealand. Maui’s boat, Te Wai Pounamu, the South Island.

The first Maoris in New Zealand

The history of New Zealand before the European settlers is mostly in the dark. Scientists suppose that sailors from the Cook-Islands were the first that put their feet on New Zealand ground about 1000 years ago.

A legend says, that a fleet of canoes came from a place called Hawaiiki. The wife of the captain of the first canoe gave the land the name Aotearoa, “land of the long white cloud”. The Maoris did not know any other races and called themselves tangata màori - the local people. They developed the special features of their culture after their arrival in New Zealand. It is known for sure that the settlers brought several food plants, rats and dogs with them. Their knowledge of medicine was little and they lived only about 30 years. The first Maoris were in a permanent struggle with neighbouring clans, war belonged to everyday life.

The exploration of the southern continent

Abel Tasman

The Dutch captain Abel Janszoon Tasman, who was send by the Dutch administration in Java, was the first European explorer who brought his ship to anchor in a bay of New Zealand in 1642. He was not able to land, because, after a misunderstanding, warriors of a Maori tribe attacked and killed four of his men. Tasman named this bay Murderer` bay. It was later renamed into Golden bay. He made a second try to land but was once again driven out by Maoris. A cartographer named the land after a Dutch province “Nieuw Zeeland”. Abel Tasman`s journals did not attract any settlers so the continent stayed unexplored.

James Cook

After a travel to Tahiti James Cook landed with his ship Endeavour on the North Island in October 1769. He was able to develop a peaceful contact to the Maoris. His description of the natives was very positive for he was impressed by their customs and abilities. Cook created a map of New Zealand and claimed parts of the country for his sovereign, George III¹. This made the colonisation of New Zealand by the British possible. He stayed for 6 months and explored the country and its people. By Cook’s thoughtful and friendly behaviour towards the natives a good contact between British and Maoris came into being.

First European settlements in New Zealand

By the colonisation of Australia New Zealand’s natural resources came into the reach of European traders. From the end of the 18th century on deep-sea whaling began in the waters of New Zealand. Harbours were deve loped, first in the Bay of Islands, then all around the continent. Settlers came and started to cultivate the land. Flax and timber were the main products for the trade.

In 1814 the first missionaries came to New Zealand for the purpose of the christianisation of the Maoris.

Economical reasons for the colonization

After the exploration of New Zealand by James Cook Philip King, a friend of the governor of New South Wales, had order to build a settlement on Norfolk Island, east of Australia. He was also supposed to cultivate the land and plant a native kind of flax- In this time flax was an very important good for the ship industry. King needed natives to show him how to cultivate the flax but Norfolk Island was uninhabited. On a travel to New Zealand he found out that the Maoris were cultivating flax and producing various kinds of goods from it. He wrote a letter to the undersecretary of state for colonial questions² in that he proposed a settlement on New Zealand in 1793.

The reaction of the Maori to the Europeans

The Maori society could deal with the new technologies and ideas that the Pakeha (non- Maori) brought with them. Diseases were brought to New Zealand and to the Maoris as well, to which the natives had no immunities. Epidemics in the 1790s caused many deaths. By 1800 the Maoris were introduced in the handling of weapons, what later on led to intertribal wars in to that date unknown proportions. The Christian religion did first not have a big influence on the Maoris. The Bible was translated into Maori language 1827 and in the 1830s a lot of Maoris converted. Other Maoris mixed their religion and Christian believes and formed new religious movements.

New Zealand becomes a colony 1814-1840

New Zealand becoming a colony was a direct consequence of the British Colony in Australia, New South Wales. New Zealand was seen as the granary for New South Wales and in a lack of more precise instructions New South Wales also controlled the land politically. So in 1814 the Maori people were declared to be “under the protection of His Majesty” and a missionary, Thomas Kendall, was appointed to be the representative of the British Crown. Kendall had not got any legal power. In fact the Pakeha population was tolerated by the Maori. In 1817 Great Britain declared New Zealand to be outside it’s legal jurisdiction. Nevertheless settlement continued and the First New Zealand Company was established. In 1826 the first settlers chosen by the Company arrived in New Zealand.

The treaty of Waitangi

The New Zealand Company was rebuilt and settlement plans were modelled according to the idea of Edward G. Wakefield. He established provinces, boroughs, and townships which were ruled by the local governor and the British Crown.

The English government tried to interfere French settlement plans for New Zealand to hinder France from achieving supremacy in the Pacific Ocean. It had already decided to annex it and the first ships full of settlers had put out though there was no land for settlement bought in New Zealand. So the new elected Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, Captain William Hobson had to act immediately. He produced a treaty which was signed by some of the Maori chiefs on February 6, 1840.³ The treaty declared all Maoris under the protection and the authority of the Queen and made it possible to buy land for settlement from the Maoris. But all land and Estates Forests Fisheries and other properties¹ were to stay in the hand of the Maoris.

The way the British got sovereignty about New Zealand has two fundamental mistakes: The first is that not all Maori chiefs signed the treaty so that British sovereignty legally did not extend over the whole of New Zealand. The second mistake is that the translated Maori version of the treaty said that the chiefs would stand under the “kawanatanga” (governorship) of the British. The only British governorship Maoris knew had no influence on the chiefs authority, because the early governors of New Zealand had no power.

The Northern War 1845-1846

Before the New Zealand Company brought settlers in a great number to the colony Maori and Pakeha lived in a peaceful co-existence. The settlers traded with the Maori tribes and in countermove the Maoris allowed them to live in their territory. But as the number of European settlers increased, the Pakeha-Maori relations changed into a struggle for land and power that lead to the Northern War of 1845-1846. The Ngapuhi chief Hone Heke resisted against the settlement politics of the government. He allied himself with Kawiti, who modelled the Maori pa ( traditional earthwork fort ) in such a way that they defeated the British troops twice. The war ended after the Maori troops were defeated in January 1846. Nevertheless Maori tribes remained in control of a big part of the North Island from Taranaki to the Bay of Plenty and the East Coast. The war led to the uniting of Maori interests by the election of King Potatau in 1858. It was the King’s duty to hinder the Maori from selling land to European settlers.

A new political system 1852-1856

In 1852 the Imperial Parliament passed the Constitution Act, which established a General Assembly which consists of an elected House of Representatives and a nominated Legislative Council and divided the country into six provinces, each of them with an elected provincial council and headed by a separately elected superintended⁴. All male, adult Pakeha who owned a so called minimal property were allowed to vote. The foreign policy remained in the hands of the British government.

A series of wars from 1858-1872

The reasons why the war broke out were equal to the Northern War. Again there was a struggle about authority and land. After British troops illegally drove a Maori tribe from their land several tribes joined to fight the British troops till a truce was agreed in March 1861. In July 1863 14,000 British troops under General Sir Duncan Cameron invaded the territory of the Kingite tribe near the Waikato river (North Island). Though the troops were very well prepared, 2,000 Maori opponents were able o slow the British attack down. The British occupied 400,000 hectares land within half a year.

The British invasion continued in 1865 and 1866 near the West Coast and was supported by pro-government Maori troops in the east.

From1868 to 1872 the British were seriously harmed by a series of successful guerrilla attacks. The struggles ended in 1872 and the area of Maori autonomy had shrunk to the central North Island, South Taranaki and the Urewera district.

The “golden age”

An Australian miner found a rich gold field near Otago and published this news in 1861.

After a few months 11,000 diggers worked on the field. The city’s population increased fivefold to 60,000. A second rush followed in 1863, than the activity moved to the west coast. The local industry profited most from the gold rushes, even more then the diggers. The population of both islands grew unequally in the 1860s, the North island had 97,000 inhabitants, the South Island 159,000. Because of the new political importance Wellington became New Zealand’s new capital.

Borrowing to reform the country

In 1869 the Colonial Treasurer Julius Vogel started a program to work against a threatening depression. New Zealand borrowed 20 million pounds in a decade and financed the building of railways, telegraph lines, harbours and other services.

This caused a wave of emigration from Europe, so that the non-Maori population nearly doubled to 490,000 in 1880.

Vogel’s reform did not strengthen the economy, but made New Zealand more dependent on Great Britain. But the rise of the population was the fundament for a better economy. In the 1880s a finance squeeze helped the economy out of a long phase of stagnation. The first ship with frozen sheep-meat went to Great Britain in 1882 and within 10 years it was one of the most important export goods.

Political innovations

After the wars against the Pakeha the Maori, living mostly in poor conditions, started a intense political activity to support their rights. Maori were now under 8% (42,000by 1896) of the population and owned less than one-sixth of the country.

In 1889 the old voting system - the minimum property qualification to vote - was abolished. The old system gave rural voters 28% more strength⁵ than urban voters. The reformation of the old voting system was continued by the new elected Liberal government. In 1893 the franchise was extended to women.

The Advances to Settlers Act 1894 offered money at good interest rates to non-Maori settlers. This made improvements in the rural-economy sector possible.

New Zealand becomes a Dominion

In 1907 the British government gave the colony New Zealand the status Dominion. By this New Zealand achieved self- government but still under the sovereignty of the crown. The reaction was not as expected, because it was seen as a recognition of autonomy but not as full nationhood.

The South African War and the World War I

When in 1899 the South African war broke out about 6,500 people volunteered. The three years long war caused a feeling of being superior warriors to their British regular- force counterparts. In 1908 the population rose over one million. When the World War I broke out 103,000 New Zealanders served abroad and about 18.000 died. This was seen as a sign of military excellence.

The Cook Islands and German Samoa were annexed. All this strengthened a national consciousness.

The Statute of Westminster 1931

The British Parliament passed the Statue of Westminster in 1931 which gave all Dominions the full nationhood. This was an important step from the Empire II to the Commonwealth. But the Government of New Zealand was afraid of the loss of Great Britain as a trade partner ( by 1930 about 80% of all exports went to Great Britain) and decided that the Statue of Westminster would have to be passed by the Parliament of New Zealand first. In the 1930s New Zealand supported the League of Nations and a collective security system. This led to disagreements with Britain. In 1947 the Parliament of New Zealand passed the Statue of Westminster.

The World War II

Right after the beginning of World War II New Zealand became a granary for Great Britain. 90 % of all export goods⁶ were sold to Great Britain at prices favorable to New Zealand. 150,000 man served in the war, so that the economy became dependent on woman. The proportion of female workers to male workers rose from 5 % in 1939 to 25% in 1947.

New Zealand as an independent state

After the World War II New Zealand followed the foreign policy of the USA⁷. New Zealand’s troops fought in Korea, Malaya and in Vietnam. The South Pacific Forum was established that deals with the economic and social problems of the whole of Oceania. Since 1973 New Zealand stands for a anti nuclear policy. Its harbours are closed for atomic-powered ships. Instead of nuclear power plans its power comes from hydro-electronic-, and geothermic power plans.

In the same year Great Britain became a member of the European Union. New Zealand lost its main export trade partner this way, because of the high taxation on goods for countries which are notin the EU. New Zealand’s export orientated economy has not been prepared for such a situation. The stagnation that followed led to drastic cut in the welfare system.

In 1987 the Waitangi tribunal was established. It was given power to decide which Crown land has Maori claimants. This way it is possible for Maoris to claim illegal land-sales since 1840. In 1993 the Mixed Member Proportional Representation election was established (the same system as in Germany).

New Zealand Today

New Zealand has started to catch up on the own historical problems. The government supports programs ( e.g. Maori⁸ schools ) to build a peaceful, bicultural state. Nevertheless there are several problems the government has to deal with:

The Maori population raises faster than the Pakeha population. By 2010 every 5th New Zealander will be a Maori. Nonetheless by 1993 24 % of all Maori were unemployed compared with 8 % of the non-Maori population and half of the prison population were Maori.

New Zealand is still a immigration- land and about 17% of its present population was born in a foreign country. There is a stream of young, well educated people that emigrates that the government tries to compensate by a immigration politic that makes a high-scale immigration possible. In 1996 43,000 people got a residence permit.

[...]

¹ From: The Oxford illustrated history of New Zealand

² From: Neuseeland, Beck´sche Reihe

³ From: Neuseeland, Beck´sche Reihe

¹ From: Land of the long white cloud ( p.23 )

⁴ From: Statistics New Zealand, GP Publications, Wellington

⁵ Statistics New Zealand

⁶ From: Neuseeland, Beck´sche Reihe

⁷ For further information: ANZUS Treaty

⁸ the language