Rotoaira prison and conscientious objectors

Rotoaira Prison, where imprisoned objectors worked on road-building in the inhospitable Rangipō district south of Lake Taupō. 

The Prisons Department, unaccustomed to dealing with prisoners who had broken civil rather than criminal law, attempted to keep the objectors completely separate from the rest of the prison populations in the eight prisons where they were kept. Prison authorities reported that while most objectors kept to themselves, a few rebelled against their incarceration and used passive resistance techniques to avoid work.