33Y
ou go to
bed in 2019,
wake up in
1939 and
look around.
There are
fewer people – about a third
of today’s 4.9 million – and
they are noticeably more
Anglo-Saxon. They are shorter
and slimmer than 2019 Kiwis.
There are not many old people
- fewer than one in 14 people
are 65 or over. Today, there are
about one in seven. There are
fewer cars – under 200,000,
compared with 3.5 million
today. And when you start
driving, you quickly hit the
gravel; so, long journeys are to
be avoided. To head to another
centre, you go not by motor-
way or jet aircraft, but by rail
or overnight ferry.
You seek out news and
entertainment from the big
radio that dominates your sit-
ting room, or it’s a weekly visit
to the movies. Television, the
internet and Netflix are miss-
ing. Your meal is meat, spuds
and two veges. Eating out is a
rare luxury when you are likely
to splash out on roast chicken.
Pies and fish and chips are the
only take away options – no
pizzas or hamburgers, let alone
falafels. For booze, the offering
is beer, mass-produced weasel
water. There are only men in
the public bars and the last
drinks are served at 6pm.
When you want supplies
for your bungalow (almost
no apartments), there are no
supermarkets or online shop-
ping services. Milk in bottles
is delivered to your gate, bread
is bought from a lorry that
stops outside, or you go to the
local stores – the butcher, the
fruiterer and the grocer – who
weigh out items, even sugar
and flour, by hand. If you
want clothes, you get dressed
up, put on your hat and head
“to town” to a large depart-
ment store. You might stop for
a cup of tea and scones – no
sign of a trim flat white.
Material life – what it looks,smells, tastes and even sounds
like (newsboys no longer
shout their wares) – is hugely
different today from 1939. But
perhaps the greatest change is
the way New Zealanders think
about themselves. Our values
have undergone a revolution.
Let’s explore that revolution,
and attempt to explain it.“BETTER BRITAIN”
On September 3, 1939, New
Zealand declared war on
Germany, and two days later,
Prime Minister Michael Joseph
Savage spoke on the radio
from his sickbed: “Both with
gratitude for the past and con-
fidence in the future, we range
ourselves without fear beside
Britain. Where she goes, we go.
Where she stands, we stand.”
No one questioned Savage’s
sentiments. New Zealandersthought of themselves as a
“British” people, fiercely loyal
to the “mother country”.
When royalty visited, New
Zealanders turned out in their
thousands (almost three-
quarters of the population saw
the Queen in 1953-54) and
they waved Union Jacks, not
the New Zealand flag. London
had passed the Statute of
Westminster in 1931, giving
former colonies constitutional
independence from the British
Parliament, but New Zealand
did not adopt it for 16 years.
Our sense of being British
was understandable. News-
papers’ cable items mostly
came with the dateline
“London”. The books we read
were published in England.
We learnt about the heroes
of Britain in peace and war.
King Arthur and Florence
Nightingale, not “King Dick”
or Hinemoa, provided our
mythologies. More than 80%
of New Zealand’s people were
descended from migrants from
“home”. Those of Indian or
Chinese descent were tiny
minorities. Māori, whom
we considered “honorary
Anglo-Saxons”, were 5% of the
population.
Over the subsequent 80
years, our British identity
has withered. There have
been four drivers of change:
migration, international rela-
tions, economic patterns and
culture. Through the 50s and
60s, New Zealand welcomed
migrants from the old country.
About 100,000 “Poms” were
given financial help to settle
here. Apart from some Dutch,
also given help, the only
non-Anglo-Saxons arrivingGET
TY
IMA
GESIn 2019, Kiwis are taller and fatter than
they were in 1939, material life has changed
immeasurably, but the biggest change of all has
been the revolution in our values. by historian JOCK PHILLIPS
Almost three-
quarters of the
population saw
the Queen in
1953-54 and they
waved Union
Jacks, not the New
Zealand flag.