scholarly journals Loosening the Marriage Bond: Divorce in New Zealand, c.1890s - c.1950s

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hayley Marina Brown
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Sexual Pleasure ◽  
Acceptable Solution ◽  
Gender Expectations ◽  
Public Surveillance ◽  
Open Court ◽  
Case Files ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors

<p>Based on a detailed examination of 2,195 divorce case files generated by applications to the Wellington Supreme Court, the study explores the changing frequency and character of the divorcing population in New Zealand between 1898, when the grounds for divorce were extended under the Divorce Act, until c.1959. The end point is set by access limits to divorce case files, the beginning of Marriage Guidance, and the establishment of a 'normal' pattern of divorce following the postwar spike. The study examines how and why New Zealanders divorced in increasing numbers over the period. In particular, it looks at the increase in divorce during and after the two world wars. The rate peaked in the immediate postwar years and remaining at levels about those pre-1914 and pre-1939.The study also looks at how war contributed to an underlying and on going change in attitudes towards marriage and divorce, not solely attributable to the immediate crisis of enlistment. The study explores the social and cultural factors influencing the decision to divorce including gender, class, religion, and the desire for, or presence of, children. Among other factors, it inquires into the reason why those who divorced in New Zealand were primarily working class, in contrast to their English counterparts, reflecting different class-based perceptions of morality and respectability. It will explore the growing emphasis on sexual pleasure and on women's attainment of social and sexual rights as contributing to the increase in divorce. The public nature of divorce proceedings through this period, with cases being heard in open court and few limits on newspaper reporting, operated as a means of social control and public surveillance. The discussion focuses on how the courts contributed to the construction of definitions of normative behaviour of husbands and wives, judged individuals' abilities to be suitable mothers and fathers and awarded custody of children. The court also adjudicated issues of acceptable and illicit sexual behaviour with gender expectations as part of the considerations. Although those who flouted expected marital norms could risk ostracism or public condemnation, the thesis also shows that this power diminished as divorce became more common. The thesis concludes with an examination of marriage guidance as a public recognition both of the potential for divorce and of the belief that marriages took effort to maintain and that advice and guidance support could help 'unstable' marriages regain stability. In the post-World War II period there was also an acknowledgement that some marriages could not be 'saved' with divorce being the only alternative. Regardless, of such interventions, the changes in attitudes about divorce, made divorce an increasingly acceptable solution to unhappy marriages. Divorce, as this thesis will argue, did not 'break' the marriage bonds but rather, loosened them.</p>

scholarly journals Loosening the Marriage Bond: Divorce in New Zealand, c.1890s - c.1950s

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hayley Marina Brown
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Sexual Pleasure ◽  
Acceptable Solution ◽  
Gender Expectations ◽  
Public Surveillance ◽  
Open Court ◽  
Case Files ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors

<p>Based on a detailed examination of 2,195 divorce case files generated by applications to the Wellington Supreme Court, the study explores the changing frequency and character of the divorcing population in New Zealand between 1898, when the grounds for divorce were extended under the Divorce Act, until c.1959. The end point is set by access limits to divorce case files, the beginning of Marriage Guidance, and the establishment of a 'normal' pattern of divorce following the postwar spike. The study examines how and why New Zealanders divorced in increasing numbers over the period. In particular, it looks at the increase in divorce during and after the two world wars. The rate peaked in the immediate postwar years and remaining at levels about those pre-1914 and pre-1939.The study also looks at how war contributed to an underlying and on going change in attitudes towards marriage and divorce, not solely attributable to the immediate crisis of enlistment. The study explores the social and cultural factors influencing the decision to divorce including gender, class, religion, and the desire for, or presence of, children. Among other factors, it inquires into the reason why those who divorced in New Zealand were primarily working class, in contrast to their English counterparts, reflecting different class-based perceptions of morality and respectability. It will explore the growing emphasis on sexual pleasure and on women's attainment of social and sexual rights as contributing to the increase in divorce. The public nature of divorce proceedings through this period, with cases being heard in open court and few limits on newspaper reporting, operated as a means of social control and public surveillance. The discussion focuses on how the courts contributed to the construction of definitions of normative behaviour of husbands and wives, judged individuals' abilities to be suitable mothers and fathers and awarded custody of children. The court also adjudicated issues of acceptable and illicit sexual behaviour with gender expectations as part of the considerations. Although those who flouted expected marital norms could risk ostracism or public condemnation, the thesis also shows that this power diminished as divorce became more common. The thesis concludes with an examination of marriage guidance as a public recognition both of the potential for divorce and of the belief that marriages took effort to maintain and that advice and guidance support could help 'unstable' marriages regain stability. In the post-World War II period there was also an acknowledgement that some marriages could not be 'saved' with divorce being the only alternative. Regardless, of such interventions, the changes in attitudes about divorce, made divorce an increasingly acceptable solution to unhappy marriages. Divorce, as this thesis will argue, did not 'break' the marriage bonds but rather, loosened them.</p>

The Formation of a Budding Man Alone: The God Boy (Murray Reece, 1976)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Fox
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
World War ◽  
Value System ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
The Family

This chapter analyses the earliest of the New Zealand coming-of-age feature films, an adaptation of Ian Cross’s novel The God Boy, to demonstrate how it addresses the destructive impact on a child of the puritanical value-system that had dominated Pākehā (white) society through much of the twentieth century, being particularly strong during the interwar years, and the decade immediately following World War II. The discussion explores how dysfunction within the family and repressive religious beliefs eventuate in pressures that cause Jimmy, the protagonist, to act out transgressively, and then to turn inwards to seek refuge in the form of self-containment that makes him a prototype of the Man Alone figure that is ubiquitous in New Zealand fiction.

scholarly journals The ANZUS Treaty during the Cold War: A Reinterpretation of U.S. Diplomacy in the Southwest Pacific

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 109-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas K. Robb ◽  
David James Gill
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Coercive Diplomacy ◽  
Monetary System ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

This article explains the origins of the Australia–New Zealand–United States (ANZUS) Treaty by highlighting U.S. ambitions in the Pacific region after World War II. Three clarifications to the historiography merit attention. First, an alliance with Australia and New Zealand reflected the pursuit of U.S. interests rather than the skill of antipodean diplomacy. Despite initial reservations in Washington, geostrategic anxiety and economic ambition ultimately spurred cooperation. The U.S. government's eventual recourse to coercive diplomacy against the other ANZUS members, and the exclusion of Britain from the alliance, substantiate claims of self-interest. Second, the historiography neglects the economic rationale underlying the U.S. commitment to Pacific security. Regional cooperation ensured the revival of Japan, the avoidance of discriminatory trade policies, and the stability of the Bretton Woods monetary system. Third, scholars have unduly played down and misunderstood the concept of race. U.S. foreign policy elites invoked ideas about a “White Man's Club” in Asia to obscure the pursuit of U.S. interests in the region and to ensure British exclusion from the treaty.

The Palimpsest of Welfarism: Enduring Layers of Paternalism in a New Zealand Industry Town

2021 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-168
Author(s):  
Fiona Hurd ◽  
Suzette Dyer
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
World War ◽  
Founding Father ◽  
Primary Industry ◽  
Employment Relation ◽  
Industrial History ◽  
Single Industry ◽  
Community Identification ◽  
Historical Accounts

This paper explores the enduring impression made by industry and its representatives on the workforces, communities and locations in which it resides. This oral history study is based on a New Zealand single industry town developed in the post-World War II era and founded on the principles of industrial welfarism and paternalism. The study reveals that the employment relation practices of the town’s symbolic “founding father” have had an enduring effect on shared community identification long after the withdrawal of these practices, and the subsequent downsizing of the primary industry. Thus, the predominant memory was both shaped by principles of industrial paternalism and entwined with stories of recent events of downsizing and redundancy. Drawing on the metaphor of palimpsest, we consider how present accounts of downsizing and redundancy simultaneously overlay, dismantle and rewrite historical accounts of paternalistic interaction in the community. This paper highlights the enduring politics of industrial history, and the continued legacy of industrial strategies on the way in which we live, work and organise.

scholarly journals Sir Frederick William George White, C. B. E., 26 May 1905 - 17 August 1994

1996 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 497-521
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Industrial Research ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Professional Lives ◽  
World War ◽  
Profound Influence ◽  
Australian Council ◽  
Australian Science

Sir Frederick White was one of the most influential men in Australian science during and after World War II. At the comparatively early age of 39, he resigned from his Chair of Physics at Canterbury College, University of New Zealand, to become an Executive Officer of the Australian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (C.S.I.R.). Many years later he was to write ‘In doing so I abandoned any future personal activity in scientific research. I have never regretted doing so.’ His acceptance of the challenge to participate in leading C.S.I.R. had a profound influence on the advancement of Australian science and on the professional lives of the scientists involved.

Migration from Jamaica in the 1970s: Political Protest or Economic Pull?

1985 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 728-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dereck W. Cooper
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
World War

A number of commentators in both newspapers and journals have implied that the high rates of out-migration from Jamaica in the late 70s were essentially a response to the democratic socialist policies of the Manley administration in that country. However, a more detailed examination of the data on patterns of migration in previous years reveals not only that the high rates were part of an on-going trend set soon after World War II, but also that the various fluctuations in rates from year to year correspond more to the immigration policies of receiving countries than to the policies of the sending nation.

Canadian Divorce before Reform: The Case of Prince Edward Island, 1946–67

1993 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Wendy J. Owen ◽  
J. M. Bumsted
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Prince Edward Island ◽  
World War ◽  
Farm Families ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Social Patterns ◽  
Traditional Morality ◽  
Case Files ◽  
The One ◽  
Available Information

AbstractThis paper represents the first scholarly effort to explore the meaning and practice of divorce in Canada between the end of World War II and the coming of divorce reform in 1968. It is based on a thorough analysis of the case files of the divorce court of Prince Edward Island, resurrected in 1946 to deal with divorce in that province. The paper attempts to place the law and practice of divorce in Prince Edward Island in a national context. It also discusses social patterns of divorce 1946–67 (based upon data never before collected for the period), generally finding them consistent with other available information for the periods immediately preceding and following the one under discussion. The paper concludes with an examination of patterns of divorce among farm families on the Island, exploring other explanatory variables besides traditional morality to explain their distinctiveness

Bernard Stonehouse: biologist, writer, and educator

Polar Record ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 38 (205) ◽  
pp. 157-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liz Cruwys ◽  
Beau Riffenburgh
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Senior Lecturer ◽  
Biological Investigation ◽  
Research Fellowship ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
The University

AbstractThis is the first in a series of biographies entitled ‘Children of the Golden Age’, the purpose of which is to describe the background and contributions of a number of significant living figures in polar research, all of whom began their scientific careers and earned their Antarctic spurs in the years following World War II. Bernard Stonehouse was born in Hull on 1 May 1926. Joining the Royal Navy in 1944, he trained as a pilot, and in 1946–50 served as meteorologist, second pilot, dog-sledger, and ultimately biologist with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, mainly from Base E, Stonington Island, Antarctic Peninsula. His first biological investigation was a winter study of breeding emperor penguins. Returning to Britain in 1950 he read zoology and geology at University College, London. Doctoral research at the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology and Merton College, Oxford, involved an 18-month field study of king penguins on South Georgia. Between 1960 and 1968, as senior lecturer, later reader, in zoology, at University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, he continued Antarctic and sub-Antarctic research in McMurdo Sound and on the New Zealand southern islands. A Commonwealth Research Fellowship at the University of British Columbia, 1970–71, gave him opportunities for research in the Yukon. After developing undergraduate and postgraduate studies in environmental science at the University of Bradford, 1972–83, he joined the Scott Polar Research Institute as editor of Polar Record, thereafter forming the Institute's Polar Ecology and Management Group, and heading a long-term study on the ecological impacts of polar tourism. At SPRI he continues to combine the two factors that have always played an important part in his life: working in polar regions and communicating with the general public on issues of biology, the environment, and conservation.

Maori and Pakeha English: Some New Zealand social dialect data

1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Phonological Features

ABSTRACTAspects of the extent and nature of the influence of the Maori language on English in New Zealand are explored here within a broad sociolinguistic framework. The current sociolinguistic distribution of Maori and English in New Zealand society is described, and typical users and uses of the variety known as Maori English are identified. Characteristics of Maori English are outlined as background to a detailed examination of the distribution of three phonological features among speakers of Pakeha (European) and Maori background. These features appear to reflect the influence of the Maori language, and could be considered substratum features in a variety serving to signal Maori identity or positive attitudes toward Maori values. Moreover, Maori English may be a source of innovation in the New Zealand English (NZE) of Pakehas, providing features which contribute to the distinctiveness of NZE compared with other international varieties. (Social dialectology, ethnic identity, Maori English, New Zealand English, language change)

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