Economy & industry
15 events between 1803–1987, shown on the map in this colour.
The southern sealing rush
Gangs of sealers worked the far south so intensively that fur seal colonies collapsed within a generation — the first sustained European industry in New Zealand.
Dusky SoundFirst shore whaling station at Te Awaiti
John Guard set up a shore station in Tory Channel, starting an industry that placed small mixed Māori–European settlements right around the coast.
Te Awaiti, Tory ChannelGold found at Gabriel’s Gully
Gabriel Read’s find more than quadrupled Otago’s population in three years and made Dunedin the largest and wealthiest city in the country.
Gabriel’s Gully, TuapekaWest Coast gold rush
Thirty thousand miners crossed to the Coast in two years, and Hokitika briefly became one of the busiest ports in New Zealand.
HokitikaVogel’s public works and immigration scheme
Julius Vogel borrowed £10 million in London to build railways, roads and telegraph lines, and to bring 100,000 assisted migrants.
New Zealand connected to the world by cable
A submarine cable from Sydney landed near Nelson, cutting news from London from three months to a few hours.
Cable Bay, NelsonFirst refrigerated cargo sails for London
The Dunedin left Port Chalmers with 4,900 frozen carcasses and arrived in London 98 days later with the cargo sound. It changed the country’s economy permanently.
Port ChalmersThe Waihi strike
Six months of confrontation at the goldmine ended when police and strikebreakers stormed the miners’ hall and Frederick Evans was fatally injured.
WaihiThe Great Strike
Watersiders and miners struck nationwide; the government swore in mounted special constables — farmers on horseback — who cleared the wharves by force.
Wellington waterfrontDepression riots
Relief workers and the unemployed smashed shopfronts down Queen Street. Similar riots hit Dunedin and Wellington within days.
Queen Street, AucklandThe 1951 waterfront dispute
Lockout and strike ran for 151 days. Emergency regulations made it a crime even to give food to a watersider’s children.
Wellington waterfrontDecimal currency day
Pounds, shillings and pence became dollars and cents, promoted by a cartoon character called Mr Dollar and a jingle everyone remembers.
Britain joins the EEC
New Zealand’s guaranteed British market for lamb, butter and cheese began closing after ninety years. The economy has never worked the same way since.
Rogernomics — the economy is deregulated
A Labour government floated the dollar, removed farm subsidies and tariffs, and sold state assets — the fastest liberalisation in the developed world.
The 1987 sharemarket crash
The New Zealand market fell further than almost any other and took years longer to recover, wiping out a generation of small investors.
Auckland