Going to school was a universal experience for New Zealand children during the 20th century. Most attended locally if they were not at a boarding school, and the Special and Correspondence Schools served those who were disabled, ill or, living in isolated conditions. By 1910, the numbers of Maori children in public schools outnumbered those enrolled in the country's Native schools. The two systems merged in 1969, though church-run institutions, for Maori and Pakeha, continued to be independent of the state for some time. Education was therefore the core means by which the state could have an influence on children's lives. Linked school medical and dental services worked in all communities and school buildings and facilities were often utilized for neighborhood events.

With a secondary education becoming freely available after 1936, increasing numbers of children had the required minimum two years at a high school. In country areas, one such institution would draw pupils from all of the elementary schools in the district; in urban areas, with a greater density of population, high schools served as a centre for adult education classes after hours. Urbanization of the Maori population opened up access to higher education. Many of the young leaders of the Maori protest movements of the 1960s were the first members of their families to attend a university. Yet the Maori cultural renaissance of the following decades also developed from "flax root" educational initiatives, especially the formation of pre-school kohanga reo (language nests). By the end of the 20th century, students could choose to receive all of their education in the Maori language, in contrast to the beginning of the century, when Maori could not be used in a classroom. (Authorities had maintained that total immersion in English during school hours was the only way for Maori language speakers to master the curriculum.)

The only such product endorsed by world famous mountaineer and humanitarian, Sir Edmund Hillary, Sanitarium's sugar-free wholegrain wheat biscuit, Weet-Bix, has long been the country's most preferred breakfast cereal. Since 1992, the company has actively sought to promote children's sport, holding Tryathlons (the spelling is deliberate) at 11 centers throughout the country. (See http://www.sanitarium.co.nz/). Taking this source as an example of targeting the child as consumer, students might explore a range of contemporary and historical advertisements in relation to food, clothing, toys, sports, and entertainment options. Examples from early 20th-century newspapers, http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz, tend to appeal to adults purchasing for children's needs or interests. In the later decades of the 20th century, however, the advertising is generally focused on youth as consumers, with younger children often "conditioned" by television jingles and images to make requests for goods and services (as in the case of fast food outlets). Ethical issues relating to advertising may also be discussed.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, there were obvious links between essential life skills and sporting pursuits, such as horse riding, fishing, hunting, running, walking, and cycling. High levels of physical activity were also connected with routine domestic chores, especially scrubbing and clothes washing. Being overweight was not a common problem. Fast foods scarcely existed save for fish and chips, popularly purchased on Fridays. Most meals were prepared at home; few Maori or Pakeha families were without access to a productive vegetable garden, neighborhood poultry, and fruit trees. Fish, fresh or smoked, was commonly eaten; lamb and beef were cheap and readily available, given the country's economic dependence on outdoor livestock farming. Diets were strongly seasonal, relatively free of preservatives and additives and, until the 1960s, most New Zealand children grew up with some basic knowledge of cooking. Urbanization, smaller housing sections, more married women in the workforce, and the rapid expansion of fast food outlets in the later decades of the 20th century, all contributed to significant changes in diets, those of low-income earners especially.

A state-funded, secular elementary education system was established in the colony of New Zealand in 1870, but the compulsory attendance provisions for 7 to 13-year-olds were not rigorously enforced, for Maori and Pakeha children alike, until the first decade of the 20th century. By then, complementary legislation, such as laws governing the minimum age for employment in factories and shops, helped to improve attendance, particularly amongst older children. There was no "social promotion"—every student had to demonstrate understanding and competence at each level before moving upwards through the primary school system. The annual visitation of the school inspector was generally a cause for widespread apprehension amongst pupils, most of whom failed to realize that their teachers were often far more worried than they were, since salaries were linked to attendance figures as well as examination results.

The advent of refrigerated shipping in 1882 led to a transformation in the colonial economy. Exports of meat, butter, and cheese could now complement the former dependence on wool. The Liberal Government, sworn into office in 1890, strongly endorsed the notion of family farms and embarked upon an intensified Maori land purchase policy to open up land that was deemed suitable for dairying. The province of Taranaki became one of the principal dairy farming areas of the colony. Few small-scale farmers could afford to employ labor. Women and children helped with the herding and hand-milking of the cows. Teachers despaired. Many of their pupils would fall asleep at the uncomfortable desks. Others were so fatigued from the early morning rising and milking that they absorbed very little of their lessons. Education authorities railed against the problem yet also recognized its complexity.

This particular news report is drawn from a collection gathered by a Waikato University undergraduate student, Pauline Hunt, when investigating the hazards of life for colonial children during the 1880s. Her unpublished study concentrated on two regional newspapers, the New Zealand Herald, published in Auckland; and the Waikato Times, printed in Hamilton. The types of accidents, fatal and non-fatal, reported during this decade included: drownings; injuries involving horses; burns from fire and scalding water; poisonings, frequently from youngsters chewing the phosphorus head on matches; falls from trees, over cliffs, into disused mine shafts, and off a house balcony; gunshot accidents; attacks by animals; and work-related injuries or death involving machinery or moving vehicles, such as tramcars or horse-drawn drays. Water, horses, and fire were the three most common causes of accidental injury or death for those under 15 years of age. (Disease, infanticide, neglect, cruelty, or assault were not included in the research project.)

Only a very few reports made reference to Maori children; the majority dealt with Pakeha whose communities were, by the 1880s, becoming dominant in the region. Daily or weekly papers were the principal means of disseminating local, national, and international news. The columns devoted to accidents gave a wealth of medical detail, including explicit descriptions of the injuries, and sometimes concluded with an expression of sympathy for the family. Warnings or words of advice were frequently printed as well. Both language and content reflect contemporary attitudes concerning the need to keep children safe. Communities as well as parents needed to protect the "social capital" that their youngsters represented.