riots

The third and deciding test at Eden Park, Auckland, is best remembered for the flares and flour bombs dropped onto the pitch from a light plane. Outside the ground, violence erupted on a scale unprecedented during the tour. Read more...

Up to 2000 anti-Springbok tour protesters were confronted by police who used batons to stop them marching up Molesworth St to the home of South Africa's Consul to New Zealand. Read more...

The disturbance followed a botched escape attempt by two prisoners and lasted into the next day. Several warders were taken hostage and part of the prison was gutted by fire. Read more...

Forty-eight Japanese POWs and one guard were shot dead. The incident was hushed up until 1945 for fear of retribution against Allied prisoners in Japanese camps. Read more...

Hundreds of unemployed people rioted in Auckland's Queen St for more than two hours. Trouble began after several hundred public servants marched to the Town Hall to protest against proposed wage cuts. Read more...

During the 'angry autumn' of 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, unemployed workers in Dunedin reacted angrily when the Hospital Board refused to assist them. Read more...

In Christchurch, 30 Irishmen attacked an Orange procession with pick-handles, while in Timaru 150 men from Thomas O'Driscoll's Hibernian Hotel surrounded Orangemen and prevented their procession taking place. Read more...