The Aotearoa History Show - Episode 10 | The Great Depression

Summary

The early 1920s brought optimism to New Zealand with economic growth and social progress, but by the late 1920s the country was ravaged by the Great Depression. Unemployment reached 30% and many suffered in isolated rural work camps. The depression galvanized the Labour Party under Michael Joseph Savage to enact sweeping social welfare reforms when they took power in 1935, although their triumph was boosted by improving global conditions. Māori also suffered greatly in the depression, which spurred political organization like Rātana. The late 1930s saw rising living standards before New Zealand entered World War II.

Takeaways

• 😊 The early 1920s had optimism - hydro dams, railways, Olympics team, Katherine Mansfield's writing success
• 😟 But NZ economy relied totally on agricultural exports to UK - vulnerable to price crashes
• 💸 1928-1934 export prices crashed 45%, 30% of men unemployed, relief payments introduced
• 😢 Unemployed men sent to rural work camps in harsh conditions, away from families
• 👵 Women suffered more - social taboos against married women working, single mums struggled
• 😡 'Angry Autumn' 1932 - riots & looting in Auckland by unemployed workers angry about hunger
• 🙏 NZ Labour Party under Michael Joseph Savage gained support with message to address inequality
• 👍 1938 Social Security Act introduced unemployment benefits, free healthcare and education
• 🏘 Building state houses for working families was a major policy - 5,000 built by 1939
• ♀️ Some progress for Māori but still injustice - less land ownership, loss of language due to education policies

Q & A

What were some positive developments in New Zealand in the early 1920s, despite the challenges with veterans?

There was economic growth thanks to the war. Major infrastructure projects like hydroelectric dams and railway lines were built. New institutions like Massey Agricultural College were founded. New Zealand sent its first Olympic team in 1920. Katherine Mansfield achieved international literary acclaim.

How did the Great Depression impact New Zealand, economically and socially?

At least 80,000 men lost their jobs. The government introduced relief payments and work schemes, but conditions in rural work camps were very difficult. Many families struggled with hunger and insecurity. Women faced additional hardships due to social attitudes.

How did the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake compound the challenges of the Great Depression?

The earthquake killed 256 people and left thousands homeless without basic necessities, further straining government finances and services.

How did the NZ Labour Party and its leader Michael Joseph Savage evolve in the early 1930s?

The party moderated some radical policies to appeal to voters struggling in the Depression. Savage promoted a message of "applied Christianity" and making sure no one went hungry or without necessities.

What factors contributed to Labour's landslide 1935 election victory?

Voters responded to Labour's message after years of economic struggle. Also the recovering world economy and borrowing freedom inherited from previous government policies helped facilitate Labour's reform plans.

What were some of Labour's major policy reforms after they took power?

They introduced unemployment benefits, health care, education, welfare payments and state housing programs aimed to support New Zealanders "from the cradle to the grave."

How did Māori communities suffer disproportionately in the Great Depression?

40% of Māori men were unemployed compared to 12% of Pākehā. It was harder for Māori to access government aid programs and the relief payments they received were lower.

How did key Māori leaders like Āpirana Ngata and Te Puea Hērangi contribute in this era?

Ngata helped secure government funding for Māori land development and culture/language preservation. Te Puea led efforts to reclaim confiscated Waikato land and revitalize the Kīngitanga movement.

What was the Rātana movement and what political success did they have?

A religious/political movement led by Tahupōtiki Rātana. They formed an alliance with Labour in the 1930s and won all four Māori parliamentary seats by 1943.

How did education policies in this era damage Māori language and culture?

The government deliberately limited Māori secondary education and banned te reo Māori in schools. This eroded language fluency over generations as parents opted not to teach children te reo.

Outlines

00:00

🎉 The early 1920s bring optimism but trouble looms

The early 1920s saw optimism with economic growth, new infrastructure projects, and sporting and cultural achievements. But the economy still relied heavily on agricultural exports to the UK. When prices crashed in the late 1920s, unemployment soared to 30% of the male workforce. The government provided relief payments but required that people work on public infrastructure projects, often in isolated rural camps.

05:01

🔥 1931: Deadly Hawke's Bay earthquake compounds economic woes

In February 1931, a massive earthquake in Hawke's Bay killed 256 people. This compounded the economic troubles from the Great Depression. By 1932, there were angry riots by unemployed workers in cities. There was a sense of sadness and hopelessness, though fascism did not take hold in NZ as it did elsewhere.

10:02

😊 Michael Joseph Savage helps Labour shepherd NZ through Depression

Michael Joseph Savage softened Labour's socialist image in the 1930s. Labour won in 1935 promising security from cradle to grave. The economy bounced back, aided by recovering global conditions and borrowing power. Labour introduced pioneering social welfare policies like unemployment benefits and universal healthcare.

15:03

🏠 State housing and social services, but inequality persists for Māori

Labour built thousands of state houses and increased social services, leading to high living standards. But Māori bore the brunt of unemployment in the Depression at 40%. Benefits were lower for Māori. Leaders like Apirana Ngata improved outcomes, but unjust land loss and education policies caused long-term damage.

Keywords

💡Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe global economic crisis in the 1930s. In New Zealand, it led to massive unemployment, with 30% of the male workforce out of jobs. Thousands struggled with hunger and poverty. The Depression is a major event discussed in the video, as it shaped New Zealand society and politics in the early 20th century.

💡First Labour Government

The First Labour Government came to power in 1935 led by Michael Joseph Savage. They launched major social welfare reforms to support struggling New Zealanders, like free healthcare, unemployment benefits, and state housing. The video argues their policies helped lift living standards.

💡State Housing

The First Labour Government introduced a State Housing program to provide quality, affordable housing for working families. Thousands of state houses were built by 1939 before being paused for WW2. State housing became a symbol of Labour's commitment to social security.

💡Maori Inequality

The video shows Maori suffered more severely in the Depression, with 40% unemployment for Maori men. Their access to relief payments was restricted. This reflects ongoing inequality and injustice for Maori in health, jobs, and land ownership stemming from colonisation.

💡Ratana Movement

The Ratana religious and political movement emerged in the 1920s led by Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana and aligned with Labour. Their cooperation brought some improvements for Maori but also reflected assimilationist policies which damaged Maori communities long-term.

💡Kingitanga

The Kingitanga is the Maori King movement which has provided important cultural and political leadership for tribes across New Zealand since the 1850s. Key figures discussed are Mahuta Tāwhiao and Te Puea Hērangi who worked to support Waikato communities.

💡Loss of land

Despite reforms, the amount of land remaining in Maori ownership continued falling, from 3 million hectares in 1912 to only 1.4 million by 1939. Land loss was a huge issue for Maori stemming from breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi by the Crown.

💡Unemployment relief

As unemployment overwhelmed communities, the government introduced relief payments for the unemployed. But there were controversial requirements to work on relief schemes, sometimes in isolated rural work camps.

💡Economic dependence

The video argues a core reason the Depression hit NZ so hard was the economy's dependence on agricultural exports to Britain. When prices fell, the economy seized up, showing the problems with New Zealand's economic vulnerabilities.

💡Fascism

The hardships of the Depression led some countries to turn toward fascism and authoritarian nationalism, like Nazi Germany. But fascism never took root in NZ. Instead, we saw the rise of the welfare-oriented Labour Party.

Highlights

The early 1920s brought optimism despite challenges for returning WW1 veterans.

New Zealand experienced growth thanks to the war, with major infrastructure projects and cultural achievements.

The Great Depression had devastating effects, with 80,000 unemployed and many struggling in rural work camps.

Women faced extreme hardships in the Depression, with social stigma around working and relief payment cuts.

The 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake compounded struggles, killing 256 people and straining resources.

In the "Angry Autumn" of 1932, unemployed workers protested violently with riots and looting.

NZ Labour gained support with a message of applying Christianity to fix capitalism's flaws.

Labour won in 1935, turning around the economy and pioneering unemployment benefits.

State housing programs built 5,000 homes before being paused for WW2.

Māori were hit harder by unemployment and faced barriers accessing relief payments.

Prominent Māori leaders like Āpirana Ngata fought for land rights and cultural preservation.

Rātana brought spiritual and political leadership, aligning with Labour for Māori advancements.

Some policies forced assimilation and forbade Māori language, damaging communities.

Māori life expectancy rose 10+ years with health system improvements.

In 1939, NZ faced its biggest challenge yet with the start of the most destructive war.

Transcripts

kyouda I'm William ray and I'm Lee madam

a McLaughlin no my header Mikey the LT

Ottawa history show okay

last episode was a bit grim lots of

death and destruction and disease but

now the First World War has ended the

influenza pending because over and it's

time to talk about the Great Depression

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the early 1920s weren't easy years for

New Zealanders hundreds of veterans were

still dying after the first world war

from a combination of old wombs the

delayed effects of poison gas and in

some cases suicide but there were still

some reasons to be optimistic New

Zealand's economy had grown thanks to

the war and the government was funding

all kinds of new stuff the first major

hydroelectric dams were being built and

the main trunk railway lines were

completed the government set up

institutions such as messy Agricultural

College

now Mercer University to investigate new

agricultural technologies like tractors

milking machines and artificial

fertilizers New Zealand sent its first

national team to the Olympics in 1920

and Katherine Mansfield became the first

New Zealand author to achieve

international acclaim before her

premature death in 1923 there was a

dramatic increase in secondary education

and in home ownership plus the

introduction of the world's first fully

funded family benefit payment Wragby had

grown to become the national game for

Maori and Pakeha mean in 1924 the All

Blacks had been most successful overseas

tour of all time they returned

undefeated with 32 victories winning

their team the nickname the Invincibles

and if you ruin em to sport there was

lots of other cool stuff happening too

like electric lights cars cinemas

grammar phones and radios these were

some of out heroes most prosperous years

but the roots of another disaster were

looking just beneath the surface our

economy still totally relied on

agricultural exports to the UK for the

same problem New Zealand faced and the

long depression of the 1880s any time

the UK market started to shrink the

gears of our economy seized up even a

small drop in export prices could be a

big problems between 1928 and 1934 the

prices didn't just drop they

they felt 45% the crash was kicked off

by a stock market panic on Wall Street

in New York which spiraled into a global

economic recession the effect in New

Zealand was devastating

at least 80,000 men ended up unemployed

roughly 30% of our male workforce the

government responded by introducing

relief payments for the unemployed but

to get that money people had to take

part in public work programs digging

ditches we doing building roads and

fences at first these schemes were set

up locally in towns and cities but if

the crisis dragged on the government set

up rural work camps for unemployed men

and the conditions in those camps could

be pretty rough like here's a

description from the Auckland weekly

news the floors of the tent are earthen

uncovered by boarding and many of them

were very dampened by rain-soaked äj--

mean bathe in the drains washing a horse

trough nearly always their ankle deep

and needy and water and often waist-deep

for many men the worst part of the

camp's was isolation from friends and

family means sometimes had to travel

hundreds of kilometres from home to work

in the camps the lives of women in the

Great Depression could be even more

difficult back in the 1930s there were

strong social taboos against married

women working in single women weren't

paid nearly as much as men single mums

often had too big or scrounge to feed

their kids and on top of that inspectors

would come to check their houses and cut

their relief payments if they weren't

spotlessly clean a new generation of

female politicians emerged in the

depression one was Elizabeth Macomb's

who became New Zealand's first-ever

female MP in 1933 in her maiden speech

to Parliament she called on politicians

to recognize the suffering of women the

official figures for unemployment

register 80,000 unemployed these figures

do not include women if we include women

in youths we find that the number is

practically double and as if the

economic crisis of the 30s wasn't bad

enough

Altea are also experienced its deadliest

natural disaster in modern history On

February 3rd and 9

in 31 a massive earthquake ripped

through Hawke's Bay its fact fires which

sweep through central Napier all at 256

people were killed in teams of thousands

we lived without access to food or water

the earthquake was a major distraction

for the people and the government it put

even more strain on public finances and

services but a year later the focus had

returned to the depression autumn of

1932 was known as the angry autumn as

parties it's rarely din our major cities

in Auckland a full-on riot broke out in

Queen Street unemployed workers smashed

windows and looted shops the anger at

hunger was particularly strong it seemed

ridiculous that so many people were

going hungry in a country which was

literally covered in farms in 1935 12

Auckland clergymen sent this petition to

the government widespread malnutrition

and a primary producing country is

nothing short of a national scandal

unspeakable suffering is endured by

thousands of honest and respectable

citizens who should not be placed in

this humiliating position but it wasn't

just anger there was also a sense of

profound sadness here's a quote from one

man who lived through those years the

Depression was grayness it's the only

way that I can describe a sort of

hopelessness that seemed to spread

around among people who in earlier parts

of their lives had been accustomed to

security it was the result of a

discovery a shock really a discovery

that life was not secure any longer

in many countries the frustrations of

the Great Depression contributed to the

rise of fascists these people won

support through massive state-sponsored

infrastructure programs which created

jobs for unemployed workers they also

promoted an extreme kind of nationalism

based on racial purity a strong military

service and authoritarian leadership the

most famous fascists were Adolf Hitler

and his Nazi Party and Benito Mussolini

in Italy but there were also significant

fascist movements and many other

countries France the UK the USA even

here in old Tarawa there were a few

fascists leaning groups but they never

took root in the 1930s

instead we thought the rise of the New

Zealand Labour Party labour was founded

by a coalition of socialist movements in

1916 to begin with this party had some

very radical policies for example they

proposed nationalizing all farmland

several labour members were jailed for

opposing conscription during the First

World War

future Prime Minister Peter phrase has

been a full year in prison but even with

those controversial policies labour

managed to win about 25 percent of the

vote in the 1920s then as the Great

Depression started to bite labor support

crimped upwards the real turning point

came after a guy called Michael Joseph

savage became the leader of the party in

1933 Michael Joseph savage helped change

the image of the Labour Party it was

still a radical movement for its time

but savage sanded down some of its rough

edges he talked about socialism as

applied Christianity and the party

abandoned some of its more extreme

policies Michael King put it like verse

on his history of New Zealand labour no

longer planned to smash capitalism as it

had wanted to do two decades earlier

like the electorate at large it wanted

to make capitalism work better in

particular it wanted to make sure that

in a country with the rich food

resources of New Zealand nobody would

have to go hungry or without work

education or health care after years of

scraping and struggling this was exactly

the message Kiwi voters were looking for

labour won a landslide victory in the

1935 election at Shirov seats in

parliament more than doubled almost

immediately the economy started to

bounce back

lots of Kiwis felt that labor had saved

New Zealand from the Great Depression

many families had pictures of Michael

Joseph savage on the walls of their

houses but did labour really in the

great depression know the depression was

not a New Zealand thing it was a global

thing basically labour got lucky they

happened to take power just at the

International economy was improving plus

they benefited from the previous

government's decision to slash spending

and see that the Reserve Bank

so when Labour came to power they had

three big things in their favour a

recovering global economy

or freedom to borrow money in a gigantic

majority in parliament over the next

four years they launched a massive

effort to lift the standard of living

for working-class Kiwis the most

revolutionary policy was the 1938 Social

Security Act this legislation introduced

the world's first state-funded national

unemployment benefit in the aftermath of

the Great Depression this was very

popular labour also introduced universal

free health care and education and

increased other kinds of welfare

payments the idea was to create a system

which supported Kiwis from the cradle to

the grave and mostly it was very

successful New Zealanders had the

highest standards of living in the world

Labour's are the major policy was

building state houses for working-class

Kiwis hundreds of people turned up to

see the first family moving by 1939 the

government had built 5000 state houses

the program then had to go on hold

thanks to the sky but it picked up again

after 1945 the Depression was tough on

Maori communities 40% of the male Maori

workforce was unemployed compared to 12%

for party her plus it was much more

difficult for Maori to apply for

pensions and benefits and they often got

less money than parkia one relief scheme

paid a single Maori man nine and a half

shillings per week a park young man got

twelve to seventeen and a half the

government argued Maori didn't need as

much money because most Maori lived

rural II and could grow their own food

but of course by this point

Maori had lost most of their productive

farmland so that idea was questionable

there were some improvements for Maori

in the 20s and 30s the population had

started to rise after the horrific

decline of the nineteenth century

and Maori perspective started to find

their way into the park our dominated

government one of the most significant

Maori politicians was apena nagata who

served as the MP for eastern Maori for

nearly 40 years

he was Native Minister for six of those

years and sometimes he served as the

Deputy Prime Minister along with his

young Maori Party allies like Maui

Palmieri now

to convince the government to help fund

the development of Maori family and he

also helped organize a major

investigation of land confiscation and

misuse of Fisheries but those

investigations didn't stop the pressure

for land the government bought large

areas so they could be granted to return

servicemen from the first world war

between 1912 and 1939

Maori land ownership fell from just over

3 million hectares to about 1.4 million

a hundred years after signing the Treaty

of Waitangi Maori owned less than 6% of

all tea at or natter endless allies

weren't only focused on land they also

worked to preserve aspects of Maori

culture yes we got funding for a

traditional carving school in Rotorua he

organised the recording of oral history

and Wyatt er número I were built and

kapa haka competitions were held another

major Mardy political figure in this era

was the Kingitanga leader tepui ahead of

me

Supriya was involved in all kinds of

efforts to build jobs farms and Medaille

in the Waikato region and she lead the

revitalization of the Kingitanga

movement in 1920 can eating a bought 10

acres of confiscated land on the bank of

the Waikato River opposite the town of

Nauru or WA here they spent years

working to clear and drain this land and

finding legal battles with Pacquiao who

wanted them removed from the region

Supriya kept up the community's morale

she spent her time teaching histories in

legion's tadhana tehy jumping out to

demonstrate how to perform hacker or

pukana she spoke about the shared

heritage of Waikato tribes in the

importance of the long term generational

struggle to survive

eventually the land at night or war here

became the site of Tudor why ma died and

that mother is still the centre of

Kingitanga power today that leaders like

to Priya hearing ye and Abaddon and

that's a faced competition from a new

movement in town Maori the rise of the

rats in a church Tahu potiki Wiremu

Ratana was a 45 year old farmer near one

the nui he was looking out from his

porch smoking a pipe when he thought he

had a spiritual vision after the 1918

flu pandemic he gained a reputation as a

faith healer and built up followers for

that's in a church by the 1920s hundreds

of people were coming to visit his home

and when he travelled around the country

his sermons drew crowds of thousands

Latin was both a spiritual and a

political leader but he became

increasingly alienated from movements

like King Etana in the young Maori Party

which considered his faith too radical

in 1928 as the economic situation

started turning for the worse but I've

done a fully dedicated himself to

politics he encouraged his followers to

run for the four Maori seats in

parliament with a prophecy that those

seats would become the four quarters of

his body

Nathan also started secret negotiations

with Michael Joseph savage and the same

election where labour took power that

earnest followers won two out of the

four Maori seats in those MPs entered an

alliance with the Labour Party by 1943

retinas prophecy was realized as

followers won all for Maori electorate

seats the Labour National Alliance wants

some significant victories for Maori

Labour equalized Maori access to welfare

and pensions the new health care system

also lead to big long-term improvements

this involved some really basic steps

like making sure Maori homes had water

tanks and bathrooms in creating portable

isolation hats for treating infectious

diseases like tuberculosis over the next

two decades

Everage multi life expectancy rose by

more than ten years

this improvement fit into a belief among

many parkia that New Zealand had the

best race relations in the world many

people believed Maori were being

successfully amalgamated and to park our

society but those ideas were based on

some pretty racist assumptions first it

assumed Maori wanted to be amalgamated

weakened it ignored the root causes of

Maori inequality like the injustice of

colonisation in the Crown's ongoing

refusal to honour the treaty so some

policies introduced in this era did long

lasting damage to Maori communities

particularly education policies there

had been Maori educational success

stories in New Zealand particularly at

COTC College which

turned out Maori lawyers and doctors

like Madonna nutter

inside I knew he'd wife also known as

Peter buck the government pushed back

against this kind of Education they

believe Marty were cut out to be

labourers not professionals by the 1930s

less than 9% of Marty boys got any kind

of secondary education compared to more

than 60% of the total population

education policy also forbids students

from speaking to their Maori at school

kids were beaten if they spoke to deal

even if they didn't know how to speak

English yet this painful experience

along with urbanization and to marriage

in the global use of English lead many

Maori to decide not to teach their own

children and over the years the number

of fluent speakers collapsed so music it

went through a lot and the early 20th

century

the First World War the influenza

pandemic the Great Depression

now what looked like we were starting to

turn a corner the economy was improving

life expectancy was increasing the

government was making a few halting

steps towards better race relations but

in 1939 a lot of that stuff had to be

put on pause while Kiwis geared up for

the most destructive war in world

history

next episode the Second World War

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