By Tess Bartlett - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

The second post­war year of reconstruction has seen unemployment[in New Zealand] reduced to extremely low levels … by 31 st March,1947, they totaled only 67 males and 7 females, including 43 semiemployablepersons.The rate of unemployment continued to decline, with the Labour and EmploymentGazette (Department of Labour, 1951) reporting in February 1951 that, in theprevious year, 403 men were classed as unemployed. This was just .01 percent of theworkforce – the lowest number of males unemployed on record. Citizens were thusable to feel secure in their daily lives, with the knowledge that their jobs were secure.Social cohesion and homogeneityThe sense of stability, security and comfort brought about by economic conditionswas complemented by the homogeneity of the population and the pervading sense oftogetherness this generated. At this stage, New Zealand’s ties with Britain remainedstrong and most New Zealanders still spoke of Britain as ‘Home’ (King, 1988: 7).Entry of migrants was restricted on the grounds of ‘race’, where the profile of whatwas considered a ‘good migrant’ remained predominantly white and British (Smith,2005: 172). A comprehensive assisted passage scheme was introduced in July 1947for British residents, restricting entry to ‘physically fit single persons between theages of twenty and thirty­five who were experienced in certain specified occupationsof an essential nature’ (National Employment Service (N.Z), 1947: 8). Thehomogeneity amongst the majority population provided a strong sense of communitywhere citizens united to form close social bonds.In contrast, any group whose language, culture or looks made it clear they were notfrom Britain were faced with extensive barriers, with Chinese immigrants inparticular suffering from prejudice and misunderstanding (King, 2003). WhileBritish immigrants and those from the Netherlands accounted for over 90 percent ofall migrants to New Zealand in 1955, ‘other foreign countries’, which were notdistinguished by ethnicity or race in annual reports, accounted for only 6 percent(Department of Labour, 1955: 7). The restrictive controls placed on all immigrantswho were not British were deemed necessary to maintain ‘White New Zealand’ as22