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The labour reforms of the Liberal government had earned New Zealand a reputation as a 'working man's paradise'. But what about working women? A 68-hour working week hardly seemed an unreasonable demand.
Celebrated on the fourth Monday in October, Labour Day commemorates the struggle for an eight-hour working day, a right that carpenter Samuel Parnell had famously fought for in 1840. Our first Labour Day was held on 28 October 1890, and it has been a statutory public holiday since 1900.
A Public Works Department camp at Hapuawhenua, near Ohakune
Work structures daily life, influencing when people eat, what they wear, how they take 'time out'. While work is usually regarded as a task undertaken for pay outside the home, unpaid work (often by women) in the house, on the farm or in the community also makes a major contribution to the lives of individuals and to the economy.
Graph of figures taken from the death certificates of British and Irish immigrants to New Zealand (which include information on the father's occupation).