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FIRST TO CARE: 125 YEARS OF THE ORDER OF ST JOHN IN NEW ZEALAND, 1885-2010 brings to life the history of one of our most ubiquitous and vital charitable organisations. The heavily illustrated book provides a vivid account of public-spiritedness, enterprise and innovation by people involved in St John over the past 125 years, peppered with occasional disputes and setbacks along the way. St John invented and popularised 'first aid' as we know it. It provided medical assistance from the sidelines of our sports fields from as early as 1891 and it played a leading role in disaster relief from its formative days. From humble beginnings it established a nationwide ambulance service that today is the envy of the St John fraternity worldwide.
The inside story of the Bill Sutch spy scandal by the agent who potted him. In 1975 Kit Bennetts was one of the youngest officers ever to serve in the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service. Fresh out of training, on routine surveillance duty one night he followed a big Mercedes from the Soviet Embassy in Wellington and witnessed a meeting between a KGB officer and an unknown man. That man turned out to be Dr William Sutch, one of New Zealand's most eminent citizens. Five months later, after more surveillance and a major sting, Sutch was arrested and charged with passing information to the Russians. A spectacular trial ensued — New Zealand's only epionage trail, ever — at which Sutch was acquitted, only to die seven months later. Thirty years aon, and with the recent release of the Mitrokhin archives, fascination with the case and speculation about whether Sutch was indeed a KGB mole endures. Spy marks the first time an SIS officer has ever gone public. Fast paced, humorous, it details how the SIS got their man, only to lose the case against him in court.
The Employment Contracts Act (1991), a key component of the structural reforms that have taken place in New Zealand since 1984, is discussed internationally as a model for designing new labour laws. The Act repudiated collective action and bargaining, rejecting almost a century of practice, and transformed unions and workplace relations. In this volume, an American lawyer who has spent several visits to New Zealand studying labour issues, tells how the ECA was passed, analyzes its performance as labour law, a matter of widespread disagreement, and explores its economic, social and legal impact.
Using previously unpublished sources from the United States, social historian Tony Simpson explores what lies behind New Zealand's founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, by plunging us vividly into the world of the early nineteenth century: prevalent world views, the British governments of the day, the trading and whaling economy of the South Pacific, evangelical missionary activity and influence, and the financial communities in London and Sydney. In this fascinating journey we come to some surprising conclusions about the Treaty of Waitangi itself.
On 21 April 1856 Melbourne building workers won an industry-wide agreement to establish the Eight Hour Day. In the 150 years since then the slogan ‘Eight Hours Labour, Eight Hours Recreation, Eight Hours Rest’ has symbolised workers’ efforts to take control over the time of their lives and, in doing so, strike a civilised balance between work, rest and play. It was an assertion that they were not simply ‘operatives’ in a labour market, but also family members and citizens in what they hoped could become a civilised community. This book offers historical perspectives on that continuing campaign to give readers a long-term context for our current debates over the work/life balance and power in the workplace.
'Marginalised' workers of the late twentieth century were those last hired in times of plenty and first fired in times of recession. Often women, Maori, or people from the Pacifc, they were frequently unemployed, and marginalised within the union movement as well as the labour force. WORKERS IN THE MARGINS tells the story of these workers in the tumultuous years of post-war New Zealand. These were years characterised by massive changes in the workforce, as it expanded to accommodate a growing urban Maori population and an increasing desire for women to enter paid work. The world of trade unions and employment conflicts, such as the 1951 waterfront lockout, was vigorous and challenging. As fr...
Internationally acclaimed biographies are almost always written by British or American biographers. But what is the state of the art of biography in other parts of the world? Introduced by Richard Holmes, the volume Different Lives offers a global perspective: seventeen scholars vividly describe the biographical tradition in their countries of interest. They show how biography functions as a public genre, featuring specific societal issues and opinion-making. Indeed, the volume aims to answer the question: how can biography contribute to a better understanding of differences between societies and cultures? Special attention is given to the US, China and the Netherlands. Other contributions a...
There is a tradition of “participant history” among historians of the Pacific Islands, unafraid to show their hands on issues of public importance and risking controversy to make their voices heard. This book explores the theme of the participant historian by delving into the lives of J.C. Beaglehole, J.W. Davidson, Richard Gilson, Harry Maude and Brij V. Lal. They lived at the interface of scholarship and practical engagement in such capacities as constitutional advisers, defenders of civil liberties, or upholders of the principles of academic freedom. As well as writing history, they “made” history, and their excursions beyond the ivory tower informed their scholarship. Doug Munro’s sympathetic engagement with these five historians is likewise informed by his own long-term involvement with the sub-discipline of Pacific History.