Chronology for 1835-1899
The colonial redistribution of welfare: Dismantling hapū ora
This period opens with a politically and socio-economically robust iwi Māori population of around 80,000 people.[i] go to footnote Whenua and whakapapa form the basis of hapū and whānau wellbeing. W.H. Oliver argues that the first instrument of social policy in New Zealand was the system set up by Hobson in 1840 for the purchase and resale to settlers of Māori land.[ii] go to footnote Pākehā welfare was dependent on the continued dispossession of Māori land.[iii]go to footnote
The New Zealand Wars (1845–1872) either directly or indirectly impacted all iwi Māori throughout New Zealand.[iv] go to footnote Related legislative measures enabled the Crown to alienate Māori land and taonga across the motu prior to and beyond the next century via confiscation, land tenure reforms, local legislative measures and contested land purchases.
Iwi Māori assertions of rangatiratanga and resistance to the alienation of lands occurred across the motu, either physically, through the courts, via direct petitioning to the government or through the simple occupation of lands. Such measures led to some government concessions, such as the Sims Commission and South Island Landless Natives Act 1906,[v] go to footnote but after 1872 resistance also sometimes led to the government’s use of force in the later 19th century and well into the 20th century. (eg, Parihaka in 1881, Waima in 1898, Takaparawhāu in 1978).[vi] go to footnote
By the end of the 19th century Māori were a minority of the national. In 1896 the Māori population hit an all-time low of 42,650, compared to a Pākehā population of just over 700,000. Although the Māori population was recovering, their communities were reeling from land alienation, decline of resources, indebtedness, diseases and Māori communities survived on subsistence economies, with a growing dependence on paid work.
Māori were either excluded or faced barriers to accessing welfare support introduced during this period.
Chronology events
Displaying 21 - 30 of 33 events.
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Māori Representation Act
Māori acquired four seats in the House of Representatives.
Date: 1867 Period: 1835-1899 -
Native Schools Act
Native Schools Act 1867 provided subsidies for rural Māori communities that offered land for a school site and contributed to the teachers’ salaries. This was a parsimonious measure, paid for partly by withdrawal or diminution of government contributions t…
Date: 1867 Period: 1835-1899 -
Neglected and Criminal Children Act
Authorised residential institutions which formed the basis of government social services for children in 19th century New Zealand.[i] Enabled Provincial Councils to establish ‘industrial schools’ to which the courts could commit neglected, indigent or deli…
Date: 1867 Period: 1835-1899 -
Earliest records of special courts for children
Until the early 1900s children committed to state care in New Zealand passed through the regular adult court system, normally the magistrate’s court.[i]
Date: 1870 Period: 1835-1899 -
Treaty of Waitangi rights judged a legal nullity
by Chief Justice Prendergast.
Date: 1877 Period: 1835-1899 -
Jurisdiction over industrial schools
This change of jurisdiction from the Department of Justice to the Department of Education signalled a shift from residential schools as primarily punitive institutions to more reformative institutions. [i]
Date: 1880 Period: 1835-1899 -
Native Succession Act
Māori women’s property rights took a step backwards in 1881 when the Native Succession Act created the potential to discriminate against Māori women’s property rights under customary marriage.[i]
Date: 1881 Period: 1835-1899 -
Infants Guardianship and Contracts Act
Legislation was mainly concerned with the welfare of the child from 1887. The Infants Guardianship and Contracts Act 1887 listed three factors judges were to consider when awarding custody: 1. welfare of the child; 2. parents’ behaviour; 3. parents’ wishes…
Date: 1887 Period: 1835-1899 -
Developments in welfare and income provision
This decade saw the enactments of women’s suffrage, labour legislation, and old-age pensions.[i] Hospitals existed as a charitable aid system and pensions were available for the aged and widowed, alongside existing provision by religious and other voluntar…
Date: 1890 Period: 1835-1899 -
Māori Parliament established
Establishment of Kotahitanga o Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Meri Te Tai Mangakahia campaigned for women’s suffrage. The first woman to address the Kotahitanga Parliament (in May 1893), she noted that Māori women were landowners, and entitled to political represen…
Date: 1892 Period: 1835-1899
Footnotes
- [i] go to main content ‘The first Māori census was attempted in 1857–58’. Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris, Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2014, p. 246. Earlier censuses were taken during the 1840s, however these were particular to regions and settlements and from there estimates were made by missionaries and colonists as to what the national population level might have been. Salmond and other prominent authors are sceptical of these figures and believe the numbers were greater. A census of Māori was attempted in 1867 but warfare prevented its completion. Tangata Whenua, Appendix One, p. 490.
- [ii] go to main content Cited in Margaret Tennant, Past Judgement: Social Policy in New Zealand History, co-edited with Bronwyn Dalley, 2004, p. 17.; ‘The April report: report of the Royal Commission on Social Policy’, Volume 1: New Zealand Today, New Zealand Royal Commission on Social Policy, Wellington, 1988, pp. 4–5.
- [iii] go to main content Tennant, 2004, p. 41.
- [iv] go to main content For more detailed information see the following link: https://teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-wars
- [v] go to main content For more information see: Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris, Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2014, pp. 256–301, and https://teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-wars
- [vi] go to main content Tangata Whenua, pp.322-3.