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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1947 | - Jul 1947—1975: Assisted Immigration
The Immigration Assistance Scheme, introduced in July 1947, was designed to bring skilled workers into New Zealand. Unlike earlier schemes, the focus was on attracting single people with practical skills. There was an initial preference for 20 to 35-year-olds, but the upper age limit was extended to 45 in 1950. While assistance went primarily to white British citizens, the country also sought other European groups who could easily assimilate into post-war New Zealand. The most favoured were the Dutch – over 6000 arrived in the 1950s as part of an assisted passage scheme from the Netherlands. Most assisted immigrants travelled by ship and docked at Wellington, but in later years many arrived by plane at Auckland's Whenuapai Airport.
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| 2 | 1950 | - 25 Jun 1950—27 Jul 1953: Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North Korea (with the support of China and the Soviet Union) and South Korea (with the support of the United Nations, principally from the United States). The Korean War was among the most destructive conflicts of the modern era, with approximately 3 million war fatalities and a larger proportional civilian death toll than World War II or the Vietnam War. It incurred the destruction of virtually all of Korea's major cities and thousands of massacres by both sides.
About 6,000 New Zealand men served during the Korea War, with 45 deaths. 17,000 The Korean War had a dramatic indirect economic impact in New Zealand. The sense of crisis precipitated by the outbreak in 1950 encouraged the United States to seek to buy large quantities of wool to complete its strategic stockpiles. This demand led to the greatest wool boom in New Zealand's history, with prices tripling overnight.
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| 3 | 1953 | - 24 Dec 1953: Tangiwai railway accident
On 24 December a North Island main trunk express plunged off the Tangiwai bridge into the Whangaehu River. The bridge had been fatally weakened by a lahar from Mt Ruapehu’s crater lake. Of the 285 people on board, 151 were killed. This is New Zealand’s worst rail disaster.
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| 4 | 1959 | - 30 May 1959: Auckland Harbour Bridge
Auckland Harbour Bridge opened after four years of construction in 1959. The bridge is 1017 m long, and used 5670 tonnes of steel, 17,160 cubic m of concrete and 6800 litres of paint. Originally, the bridge had only four lanes, but this quickly proved inadequate. In September 1969 the ‘Nippon clip-ons’ – two lanes on each side, pre-fabricated in Japan – were added. At the time, this was pioneering technology, but 15 years later fatigue was discovered in the splice joints and several thousand had to be replaced. Tolls were charged on the bridge until 1984.
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| 5 | 1960 | - 1 Jun 1960: First NZ TV Broadcasts
First NZ TV Broadcasts. Full-time black and white television broadcasting was first introduced in New Zealand in 1960. Initially, programming was done on a regional basis, with different services broadcasting from the main cities, AKTV2 in Auckland, being the first on 1 June 1960, followed in 1961 by CHTV3 in Christchurch on 1 June and WNTV1 in Wellington on 1 July, and then DNTV2 in Dunedin on 31 July 1962.
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| 6 | 1964 | - 1 Jun 1964—30 Apr 1975: Vietnam War
The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies; South Vietnam was supported by the United States, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and other anti-communist allies.
New Zealand's involvement in the Vietnam War was from 1964 until 1975 was modest, involving approximately 3,800 military personnel, with 37 killed and approximately 187 injured.
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| 7 | 1967 | - 1967: Citizenship for all Aboriginal people
At the time of Federation, Aborigines were excluded from the rights of Australian citizenship, including the right to vote, the right to be counted in a census and the right to be counted as part of an electorate. In addition, they were not subject to Commonwealth laws and benefits in relation to wages and social security benefits such as maternity allowances and old age pensions. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people matters were in the hands of State governments. The Australian Constitution was amended in 1967 to give the Commonwealth power to make laws for Aboriginal people and to make it possible to include Aboriginal people in the census, which in effect, made them count as Australian citizens for the first time.
- 10 Jul 1967: Decimal Currency
Decimal Currency, dollars and cents, replaced Pounds, shillings and pence in 1967. The banks were closed from Wednesday 5 July to give staff time to convert their records by 10 July. The new coins were in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents. The new $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 and $100 banknotes each had different native birds and plants on the reverse, and were distinguishable by colour. Their design featured complicated geometric patterns, including Maori iconography. A $50 note was introduced in 1981, and in 1990 the $1 and $2 notes were replaced by coins.
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Chris Korte's New Zealand Genealogy Project
Abt 1950 - 1968 (18 years)
