Economic • The
Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1894 established a conciliation and compulsory arbitration system with the aim of providing the unions with the means of protecting their members. The act encouraged the growth of unions by limiting labour representation at the arbitration court to registered unions. The act also gave the arbitration court the authority to fix conditions of employment which included (as noted by one study) "fixing the minimum rates of wages to be paid in the cases coming before it.” • Legislation was introduced to protect vulnerable groups, such as the gumdiggers, miners, shop assistants, shearers, and servants. • The Department of Labour was established in 1891 to ensure that improvements in working conditions took place to inspect shearing sheds, shops, factories, and generally to examine working conditions. The new department helped to reduce unemployment by transporting labourers to jobs, and assisted more than 90,000 men and their dependents find a family income over the course of the next decade. • Factory hours and working conditions were strictly regulated and children were removed from factories. The Factory Act 1891 gave legal definition to a factory. The Factory Act 1894 required registration and inspection of factories, specified maximum hours of work for women and young persons, and prevented those under the age of fourteen being employed in factories. By 1896, 4,600 factories with 31,000 workers and a further 7,000 shop assistants were registered with the Department of Labour. • In 1894, an act aimed at preventing sweating was passed. • The Shop-Assistants Act 1892 dealt with sanitation and inspection. It also introduced a compulsory half-holiday for retail workers. • The Wages Protection Bill (1898) was designed to protect workers' wage packets from arbitrary deductions by employers. • The New Zealand Accident Insurance Act 1899 provided the commissioner of life insurance with the powers to insure people against accidents, and could also insure employers from liability for accidents to any of their employees. • The Shipping and Seamen's Act 1894 specified minimum crews and safety conditions for shipping. • An act of 1896 provided, as noted by one study, “that no factory work could be carried on in premises where a person resided who suffered from an infectious disease.” • The public service was significantly expanded between 1891 and 1911. By 1912, more than 40,000 people were on the state's payroll, compared to roughly 10,000 in 1890. • The Factories Act of 1901 regulated the working hours of men while providing for payment of overtime. • The Coal Mines Act 1901 established state mines to compete directly with privately owned mines. • The Fires Brigades Act 1906 increased subsidies for volunteer fire brigades. • Public works schemes such as road construction were encouraged and helped to reduce unemployment. • A land and income tax bill was passed which introduced direct taxation as well as a graduated land tax. The bill also repealed the former inequitable property tax. • A significant industrial expansion took place, such as in the metal trades, in printing, in the clothing and processing industries, and in new industries such as electrical supply, fibrous-plaster works, and wire-marking. • A state fire insurance office and state coal mines with their own sale depots were established. • The Truck Act 1891 forced all employers to pay in cash instead of goods. • The Coal Mines Act (1891) authorised the government to purchase two West Coast mines. • The Employers' Liability Amendment Act enabled workers to recover damages for injuries received from either faulty equipment or negligence on the part of the employer, and also outlawed any arrangement whereby a worker agreed not to claim for any damages. • The Contractors' and Workmen's Liens Act of 1892 protected the rights of workers and contractors for payment for work done. • The Wages Attachment Act of 1895 prevented wages below a certain amount from being attached for debt. • The Employment of Boys or Girls without Payment Prevention Act of 1899 set minimum rates of pays for boys and girls. • Women and young people in employment were limited to a 45-hour workweek (1901). • The Shipping and Seamen's Amendment Act stipulated the proportion of trained shipmen on a ship. • The Shop and Shop-assistants Act enforced weekend holidays. • A factories act stipulated maximum working hours for women and children, while forbidding the employment of children under the age of fourteen. • The Factories Act 1894 provided for the registration and inspection of factories and closely regulated the employment of women and children. • A plan for unemployed workers to clear and then lease landholdings was sponsored. • A women's employment bureau established (1895). • The government won the right to repurchase private land for development, with its Land for Settlements Act 1892, which was supported by a graduated land tax under the Land and Income Assessment Act 1891. • A bureau of industries was established (1891) to help place people in jobs. The bureau provided male New Zealanders with employment on special relief works and also gave free railway passes to unemployed men to enable them to go to areas where jobs were available. • A commercial trusts act (1910) was introduced to suppress monopolies.
Health • Public Health Act 1901 founded the
Department of Public Health in 1901. • The Nurses' Registration Act 1901 provided for a course of three years' training and a state examination followed by registration. • The Midwives' Act 1904 was passed with the aims of regulating midwifery through a midwives' register, providing better training of midwives, and reducing maternal and infant mortality amongst working-class mothers. The legislation also encouraged the construction of state maternity hospitals. • Steps were taken to teach oral hygiene in schools following a plea by dentists to the government in 1905. • Subsidies on a pound for pound basis were made available to local authorities for water purification and sanitation. • A rudimentary district nursing system was set up in areas with a high Maori population. • Maori medical services came to be co-ordinated under the auspices of the Department of public Health. • The Hospital and Charitable Institutions Act 1909 established 36 hospital districts, each with an elected hospital board. • A department of health was set up, which initially concentrated on providing better sanitation, clean water, and sewage disposal, and dealt with quarantine matters. • Vaccination against several diseases was promoted. • The Pharmacy Board worked on a set of regulations (in 1911) governing the labelling of food and drugs, and the protection of meat and milk products. They were gazetted in 1913 under the Sale of Food and drugs Act of 1907. • The Juvenile Suppression Act (1903) introduced penalties for supplying tobacco to youths or for youths who smoked. • A system of medical inspections of children before they passed out of primary school was initiated. • The Opium Prohibition Amendment Act 1902 introduced harsher penalties for the import of opium for smoking. It was the first government-sponsored tourism organisation in the world.
Welfare • The Old-age Pensions Act 1898 established a system of old-age pensions. Pensions were later introduced for widows (1911), Māori War veterans (1912), miners (1915), and the blind (1924). • An Act of September 1891 established a relief fund for miners and their families. • In 1911, miners suffering from pneumoconiosis began receiving payments from a small relief fund set up by the government the previous year. • The Military Pensions Act 1911 introduced payments for veterans of the Māori War of the 1860s. • A variety of superannuation schemes for government workers were introduced. Starting with the Civil Service Insurance Act 1893, special schemes for railway and post office workers were introduced. In 1908, a comprehensive retirement scheme for all remaining state employees was established. • The National Provident Fund Act 1910 encouraged the provision of annuities in old age. It also made special provision "for the support of dependent children by providing for the payment, on the death of a contributor, of a weekly allowance to the widow so long as any child is under 14 years of age, due after contributing for five years". Referred to as a "government friendly society", provided maternity medical expenses, sickness and death benefits, and a weekly pension at sixty which varied according to the level of contributions. • Child welfare was given greater attention, as demonstrated by the passing of legislation raising the age of consent (1896), better protection for the homeless (1896), the prohibition of children from smoking (1903), and attempts to create effective legal structures for dealing with juveniles (1906). • The money lent under the Advances to Workers Act 1906 led to the construction of 9,675 houses by 1919. • The Testators' Family Maintenance Act 1900 helped to protect the economic rights of wives and children. • The Destitute Persons Act 1910 made provision for illegitimate children and deserted wives and children. This legislation introduced the concept of attachment orders on wages, and was aimed at relieving destitution rather providing adequate long-term support. • The Legitimation Act 1904 made provision for the registration of the birth of any child born out of wedlock where the parents had subsequently married. In cases such as these, the father of the child had to register the birth and make a declaration that at the time of the birth there was no legal impediment to his marriage to the mother. • A national pension scheme for teachers was introduced (1905). • The Infant Life Protection Act 1893 required that all homes "that received payment for looking after infants under the age of two for more than three consecutive days had to be licensed as foster homes and were subject to police inspection". This legislation was followed by another act in 1896, which extended police powers of inspection and raised the upper age limit to four years. • The Infant Life Protection Act 1907 required a doctor or midwife in attendance at the birth of an infant to notify the local registrar of the birth and a parent or his or her agent to complete the register entry. • Technical education was expanded, with 13,500 students attending such classes by 1912 at eight institutions. • After 1895, students could receive assistance with rail transport to and from schools, and over the next few years small boarding allowances were paid as well. • A free textbook scheme was launched. • Higher leaving certificates were instituted to be awarded to secondary school students "who satisfactorily completed one year at approved post-matriculation studies" (1901). This ensured that any student who passed their university entrance examination and stayed another year at a secondary school studying an approved course could (if their work was of a good standard) receive a free university place for four years. • New regulations for the examination and inspection of schools were introduced, which provided head teachers with greater freedom in the classification of their pupils. • More secondary schools were brought into the national system (1903). • By the outbreak of the
First World War the national primary school service had been considerably improved. • Free places in secondary schools were introduced (1902). By the end of the First Liberal Government, fewer than 20% of all secondary students paid any fees.
Foreign policy • Declared the
Flag of New Zealand as New Zealand's national flag in 1902. • Committed New Zealand troops to the
Boer War. • Annexed the
Cook Islands (1901) New Zealand's foreign policy at this time expressed a sense of nationhood but also of Britishness: New Zealanders were proud of their young nation and of being part of the
British Empire. The annexation of the Cook Islands can be seen as part of a desire to create a miniature empire in the Pacific, which would be part of the wider British Empire. New Zealand's enthusiastic involvement in the Boer War expressed both loyalty to 'mother Britain' and a sense of being a nation which could play its part on the world stage. The war was the first overseas conflict to which New Zealand committed troops. Although the New Zealand blue ensign became the country's national flag, the
Union Jack, the flag of
Great Britain, continued to be widely used (the medals awarded at the conclusion of the war featured the flag of the
United Tribes of New Zealand).
Treaty of Waitangi and Maori • Passed the
Tohunga Suppression Act in 1907. • The Māori Councils Act (1900) instituted local councils for Māori; although short-lived, it brought some improvements in health, slowed land sales, and provided Māori with more say in running their local affairs. • A rudimentary district nursing system was set up in areas with a high Māori population. • Māori medical services came to be co-ordinated under the auspices of the Department of Public Health. • Housing conditions for Māori were considerably improved between 1904 and 1909. • Six-thousand Māori were vaccinated between 1901 and 1905. • Māori councils were provided with additional powers to enforce standards of hygiene (1901). • Māori district high schools were developed.
Constitutional • Passed a resolution declaring New Zealand the
Dominion of New Zealand in 1907, formally ending colonial status. • Granted
women's suffrage in 1893 (despite
Seddon's efforts to have the
Legislative Council stop it). • Life membership in the upper house was reduced to a seven-year term. • The stranglehold of the legislative council was broken. • Women were granted practical equality and divorce rights. • The Divorce Act (1898), and the repeal (1910) of the Contagious Diseases Act removed various forms of legal discrimination against women. • A defence act was made law (1910) to introduce compulsory military training. • The Crimes Act (1910) introduced the "reformative detention" sentence, which ensured that a person could be held for a period long enough for necessary reform training to be undertaken. ==Formation==