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Stowing frozen carcasses on the Port Caroline
The bad old days: stowing frozen carcasses in one of the Port Caroline’s refrigerated holds. Even in such a gleaming new ship, it was cold, hard work and could be dangerous as well.The Port Caroline...
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Manufacturing NZ Bren Gun carriers
Film showing a factory (probably the General Motors plant at Lower Hutt) where Universal (Bren) gun carriers were made during the Second World War.This 1942 newsreel talks about how many are being made...
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The Vogel era
Julius VogelIn 1870, Colonial Treasurer Julius Vogel launched the most ambitious development programme in New Zealand’s history. He proposed to borrow huge sums from Britain to revitalise and...
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New Zealand in 1870 - the Vogel era
Three decades after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s two main islands were like two different countries. The 1860s had been a turbulent decade. Much of the North Island had been...
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Vogel's vision
In 1869, when Julius Vogel became Colonial Treasurer in the government led by Premier William Fox, he observed that:New Zealand is a peculiar country. You cannot get over its geographical...
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Building Vogel's railways
Julius Vogel wasn’t the first colonial politician to promise public works and immigration on the back of borrowed money. But the early 1870s offered better prospects for success. War in the North...
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Vogel's legacy
Julius Vogel cartoonAfter the initial enthusiasm of the 1870s, Julius Vogel’s reputation suffered in the 1880s when New Zealand’s economy slumped into a long depression that was triggered by an...
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Overview - NZ in the 1970s
PopulationNew Zealand’s population reached three million in late 1973. Then the rate of natural increase slowed as the contraceptive pill became more widely used and an economic downturn meant that...
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200,000th vehicle leaves Todd Motors
Agriculture was the backbone of the New Zealand economy but manufacturing was an important source of employment. Tariffs on imported goods were intended to protect local industry.As early as 1907 the...
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Economic nationalism cartoon, 1933
This 1933 cartoon reflected the New Zealand Legion's belief in economic nationalism and self-sufficiency. It hoped to achieve this aim via a bigger domestic market for New Zealand...
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Ice comes to Nelson
Nowadays it is easy to have a cold drink on a hot day, but it was not always as simple as adding ice from the freezer to water from the refrigerator. Once the ice made a far longer journey.On 22...
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Signing the Closer Economic Relations agreement
The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Robert Muldoon, watched by James Webster, Australia’s High Commissioner to New Zealand signs the Heads of Agreement on 15 December 1982 which paved the way for the...
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Weekend trading protest
Sarah Montague, with balloons, at a Shop Employees Union booth during the Union's campaign against Saturday trading, Manners Street, Wellington. Union member, Mrs Elsie Bryan, is on left. Photograph...
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1987 stock market crash
Stuart Beadle (right), sharemarket operator for Francis, Alison, Symes and Co, and colleague Grant Taylor show the stress of dealing with the fall in stock prices, 25 October 1987.When the Wall Street...
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Internal conflicts
Economic nationalism cartoonBecause the New Zealand Legion was such a catch-all movement for various ideas and grievances, it was inevitable that its inherent contradictions would surface. The first,...
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Decline
NZ Legion first anniversaryInternal divisions and resignations over policy had considerably sapped the New Zealand Legion’s strength by the beginning of 1934. In the Hawke’s Bay Division, only two of...
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'A gleam of hope' cartoon, 1933
During the Depression the Coalition government constantly tried to reassure citizens that New Zealand's economic fortunes had 'turned the corner'. But recovery required a rise in export prices, which...
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Pull together Depression cartoon, 1933
The New Zealand Legion believed that party politics were divisive, and appealed for national unity irrespective of sectional differences.Credit: National Opinion, 1, 4, 21 September 1933, p.4tags:...
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NZ under control of Tooley Street cartoon
During the Depression the conspiratorial belief in a secret cabal of international financiers controlling the world's economic fate became very popular. Since New Zealand exports and British capital...
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Decline
NZ Legion first anniversaryInternal divisions and resignations over policy had considerably sapped the New Zealand Legion’s strength by the beginning of 1934. In the Hawke’s Bay Division, only two of...
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