ASSESS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE IMPACT OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR ON THE NEW ZEALAND HOME FRONT
When assessing the significance of the impact of the First World War on the New Zealand Home Front, it is important to consider how profound similar impacts were on countries abroad as well as comparing them to other events in New Zealand’s history. In doing so, the impact on the home front is comparatively insignificant in many ways, though some aspects are nevertheless noteworthy. The sending and loss of men to the war in causing difficulties among the women of the country both economically and emotionally, coupled with the positive economic impact of the war demonstrated great significance. However, though the war caused certain defects to the New Zealand economy, the economic situation in Germany by comparison was certainly far greater. The outbreak of war also caused a degree of discrimination against the Germans in New Zealand, but this is immensely insignificant when analysing the same situation in nearby Australia. For some people, the war also acknowledged New Zealand as a distinct nation in its own right, but, in shaping New Zealand as a country, the Waikato Wars was more defining.
Despite the overall insignificance of the impact of the war on the New Zealand home front, New Zealand’s economic development is still noteworthy. “Increased demand for goods to feed the war machine meant unprecedented profits for some of our home-grown industries” (Gavin McLean). This essentially sums up the New Zealand economic situation during the war. Wool became one of the major exports as New Zealand was called on to supply cloth for uniforms and blankets for the soldiers of the British Empire and the US. This impact not only aided economic development but also helped NZ in making itself known on an international scale. For example, the Kaiapoi Woollen Mill secured contracts internationally in supplying cloth; the significance being that the mill was able to earn a steady income during the war which otherwise caused difficulties for most businesses according to Waimakariri Libraries. In addition, the outbreak of war prompted British decision, in 1915, to secure bulk-purchase agreements with New Zealand; large amounts of Glaxo, dairy and meat were exported to Britain. The significance of this was that many of the farmers, making up much of the New Zealand population, were guaranteed relative prosperity during this period, as were some businesses. Between March 1915 and June 1917, a total of ten freezing works, three Glaxo factories and twenty cheese factories opened, providing new job opportunities and increased profits; by 1921 New Zealand had earned $14 billion which in turn resulted in an enormous increase in deposits from 25.2 million pounds to 37.4 during the war, outnumbering the amount withdrawn. It is then said with confidence that the overall wealth of average New Zealanders increased; in 1918 Herbert Watson stated that “every little farmer now has his car & although bad petrol is at [a high price by] the gallon they all do plenty of driving”. With all of the above considered, the positive economic impact on farmers, and certain business owners (of mills, factories) were therefore very significant.
Among the positives, New Zealand still suffered a degree of hardship economically though relative to the German nation this was minimal . As a result of the outbreak of war, the troops sent overseas amounted up to 100,000 men. This accounted for a whole fifth of the New Zealand labour force, and they were not producing but nevertheless consuming. This resulted in decreased government domestic expenditure. To accommodate for this impact of the war, the government raised taxes causing tax revenue increase and number of taxpayers to rise from 14,000 at the start of the war to 44,000 in 1919/20. The rise in tax caused a decrease in wages and this, coupled with the increase in prices (because of inflation – prices increased by 67%), negatively affected the public; the resultant price controls limited how much business owners could charge their customers which led to widespread discontent. However, the significance of New Zealand’s struggles economically is very insignificant when put in contrast to Germany’s economic situation. By 1918, Germany’s national income had dropped to a third of what it had been in 1913 and was in state of virtual bankruptcy as the war left 600,000 widows and 2 million fatherless children, forcing the government to spend a whole third of its budget on war pensions in 1925 (while New Zealand enjoyed great profits). In addition, industrial production dropped to two thirds (of 1913 production) as Germany lost the Saar and Upper Silesia under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. When comparing New Zealand’s situation of inflation to Germany’s hyperinflation, the negative impact on New Zealand is minor; so much money was printed (to pay reparations enforced on them because of the war) that money became worthless, wheelbarrows were used to carry home wages which were paid daily instead of weekly, and prices rocketed such that a loaf of bread costed 201 billion marks ($170 billion). Those with savings found them to be worthless with the money that could once buy a house could now not even buy a loaf of bread. The economic impact of the First World War was said to have been so significant that up to 35% of all trade in Germany was illegally organised on the Black Market. Such was the significance of the impact of war on Germany that crime emerged to accommodate economic losses. In New Zealand, people did not suffer from shortages, or economic hardship to the scale that Germany experienced and in the long term, the economy and quality of life for people remained stable, which was vastly different to the impact of the war on Germany’s home front.
It could be said that women were one of the most affected by the loss of men due to the war both emotionally and economically. An editor at the The New Zealand Herald stated that the women of the future “will sing…of the wonderful 20th Century girls who sent their sweetheart uncompelled to bleed and die” (Eldred-Grigg). In some regards, some women believed this. One mother sent a letter to the Otago Witness saying that she had “no regrets” adding that if she “had 12 sons, [she] would have sent all 12” in belief that they were fighting for King and Country. However, the fact that most women could not liken themselves to these words proved significant. Particularly when men came home displaying the horrific signs of the war (including missing limbs and disease) many women became increasingly angry and violent, with cases of obscene swearing or depression. Mary Glassford said that her “heart’s life ebbed away” when she sent her son away to the war. This is significant in conveying the widely-believed view on war of women at the time. Even extreme cases of suicide was seen; Georgina Glenday was found “hanging by the neck from a rope” according to the same editor at The New Zealand Herald, because her brother had been gassed at Ypres. The impact of the war therefore, brought about a concrete view of war in general as opposed to the vague, undefined and even patriotic one that many women had held before the war. The impact on women was also very significant economically. The enlistment and conscription of 100,000 plus men because of the war meant most rural and working class families, who had men mobilised for war, suffered as they had been reliant on their earnings and now the labour of all family members was needed to accommodate for his absence. Besides, men earned two times as much as women. Katarina Te Tau of Wairarapa, at fifteen years old, said that she had “a hard working life, because [her] elder brother…was enlisted into the war…I had to give up school and help”. Therefore, the impact of the First World War on the women of the New Zealand home front is very significant when considering the profound emotional and economic effects.
Returning soldiers were faced with another period of hardship as many struggled to resume their pre-war lives, showing how the war impacted the New Zealand home front in the long-term. Positives were still widely seen as the New Zealand government rightly felt a responsibility and moral debt to the soldiers who had returned from the war and were determined to re-insert them into normal life. A Repatriation Department in December 1918 provided vocational training, agricultural training in state farms, and positions in industrial trades such as motor mechanics or bookkeeping skills. Men were even allowed generous loans to re-establish themselves in business again, and 1.6 million hectares of farmland were reserved for distribution to soldiers. However, everything was not as bright as it seemed statistically. A 1930 commission of inquiry approximated that there were 5000 ex-soldiers whose wartime experiences were the cause of their poverty or permanent ill-health or both. War-related disabilities such as respiratory disease, deafness, blindness and PTSD contributed to this as well. More seriously however, these factors increased the suicide rates of ex-servicemen; 333 men are said to have ended their own lives in order to remove the burdens of post-war life (Otago University public health experts). It seems that the words of Tony Fagan, soldier who had fought at Gallipoli, draws attention to the significance of the impact the war had on the soldiers both during and after the war: “Those that war destroys aren’t those who are killed or wounded. The real casualties are those who come back, and who have to go on as if nothing has happened”. However, when considering the overall significance of the hardships experienced by the ex-servicemen in regards to the New Zealand home front as a whole, it is, though certainly significant to the ex-soldiers, not so significant to the majority of people who failed to realise these sorts of burdens.
The idea of ‘The Enemy in Our Midst’ (Francis), caused tension at home between a once harmonious German-New Zealand community once war broke out. The declaration of war forced a reassessment of loyalty towards the local Germans in the country by the British New Zealanders. This change in atmosphere on the home front was highlighted after the sinking of the British ocean liner Lusitania in May 1915 and acted as a catalyst for the most intense anti-German violence. Because of this, German-owned businesses were attacked like Hallenstein’s, Conrad Heinold’s butchery business, and the Bristol Piano Company. Even certain legislative acts were passed against the Germans within New Zealand including the Alien Enemy Teachers’ Act in the spring of 1915 by which Von Zedlitz, among many others, lost his job as Professor at Victoria College. However, the significance of the oppression that was seen on the home front against Germans is noticeably insignificant when compared with the same situation in Australia. On October 29th 1914, the Commonwealth parliament passed a ‘War Precautions Act’ under which ‘enemy aliens’ were forbidden from owning a car, telephones, and cameras. The degree to which a German individual in Australia was deemed an ‘enemy’ was significantly blurred when “internment without trial” was widely observed where any military intelligence officer could condemn an individual on the sole basis that he/she posed a “possible danger”. The government even refused to accept complaints from internees. In October 1916, regulations were extended to practically anybody who dared to object against New Zealand’s commitment to the war; censorship, surveillance, internment and deportation were imposed, and by the end of the war 6150 persons were deported. In fact, the significance of Australian oppression towards Germans was so great that most of the internees voluntarily left the country they had once called home as they felt it could not offer them a pleasant future. In this way, the opposition of residential Germans in New Zealand as a result of the war was not so significant when compared to the same situation in Australia.
For some people, the war also acknowledged New Zealand as a distinct nation in its own right, however, in shaping New Zealand as a country, the war is not very significant when compared to the Waikato Wars. Indeed, the First World War