conscription

For whose 'King and Country'?

In his recruitment waiata, 'Te ope tuatahi', Ngata made it clear that the replacement recruits that he and his colleagues had raised had come from Te Arawa and the East Coast tribes of Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngati Porou and Ngati Kahungunu. These were all tribes noted for their loyalty to the Crown. Their tribal elders were influenced by ideals of patriotic service and the obligations of citizenship inherent in their ancestors' signed commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi. Naming them was an expression of honour and also an implied criticism of those not mentioned.

Biography of Te Puea Herangi, grand-daughter of the second Maori King. Te Puea was a prominent advocate for Tainui in the first half of the twentieth century.

More than 120,000 New Zealanders served overseas during the First World War. When the war broke out in 1914 men flocked in their thousands to answer the call to arms. By the end of the first week of the war 14,000 had enlisted.

Despite confident claims that it would be 'over by Christmas', by 1916 the war appeared no closer to a conclusion. The seemingly endless toll in lives and maimed men began to impact on public sentiment. As the Census and Statistics Office was tasked with the compilation of manpower registers, newspaper editorials urged the public to accept the necessity of greater sacrifices if the war was to be won. Intensive campaigns to encourage enlistment failed to meet their targets, with only 30 percent of men eligible for military service volunteering.

This poster announces the requirement to enrol in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and the consequences of failure to do so.

The Military Service Act 1916 introduced conscription, initially for Pakeha only. The act also made limited allowance for people who objected to serve. Only members of religious bodies that had, before the outbreak of war, declared military service 'contrary to divine revelation' could be exempted from service.