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.

These tables give details on three health-related facets of young New Zealanders' lives as interpreted from data recorded in the 1996 Census: levels of educational qualification in school leavers, unemployment rates, and youth mortality. The selection reflects a particular area of public concern, namely the high number of deaths, among young males especially, from suicide, self-inflicted injury, and motor vehicle accidents. In 1996, the suicides of young people aged 15-24 years, represented 26.6% of total suicide deaths, yet that age group was only 15.6% of the total population. Although the number and rate of youth suicide declined between 1995 and 2000, the Maori youth suicide rate continued to be approximately 50% higher than the non-Maori rate. (See: Youth Suicide Prevention Information New Zealand.) The definition of young New Zealanders reflects social and political changes over recent decades, most noticeably the expectation of a longer period of financial dependency. The calculations for tertiary student allowances, for example, initially took parental income into account until a student turned 25. Yet the legal drinking age was reduced from 20 to 18 in 1999, and youth can apply for a restricted driving license at the age of 15. There is some inconsistency in defining the ages of transition from child to youth to young adult.

Cultural contexts are significant when considering the links between education, employment and the health of young New Zealanders in the second half of the 20th century. Ethnically, New Zealand society became more diverse in this period, with two major changes being the migration of Pacific Island peoples during the 1960s, and new immigrants from Asian countries from the 1980s onwards. While the different levels of educational attainment account for some of the disparities, diffidence and difference also influence employment rates for cultural minorities.

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 Dunedin politician's speech could be analyzed for its tone as well as its (edited) content. Notions of morality and responsibility can be identified, along with an attitude that children should be protected from adverse influences. The proposed legislation would have given police the powers to apprehend young loiterers and return them to their parents. There was some debate in the House over a suggestion that police could be permitted to use a supple-jack in the process. Ironically, while the general position of politicians was one of opposition to that, corporal punishment was in constant use in the country's schools at the time and remained so until abolished in the early 1980s.

Although neither the Juvenile Depravity Suppression Bill (1896) nor a subsequent Young Persons Protection Bill (1897) were passed into law, debates over how best to deal with youngsters not under "proper" parental care continued to surface regularly over the next century. Anti-social behavior could be defined in a number of ways: the "street larrikins" of the 1890s, congregating on street corners and behaving discourteously to adults transmuted into "milk-bar cowboys" by the 1950s, and "boy racers" and graffiti "taggers" at the end of the 20th century. Sexuality, latent or overt, was another key area of on-going concern for politicians and social commentators. A mid-century enquiry into "juvenile delinquency" (alleged immorality and depravity) in the post-war suburban development of the Hutt Valley (Wellington) resulted in some 300,000 copies of the 1954 Mazengarb Report being disseminated, one to every household in the country that received the family benefit and/or additional state welfare assistance for children. The Report's recommendations included advocacy of more suburban leisure and recreational facilities; better education for parents; and stricter censorship of comics and other potentially "harmful" publications. From the 1960s, the influence of more sexually explicit television programs and advertising became the focus of concern; and, by the end of the century, the Internet, computer games, and mobile telephone technologies.

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.

E. J. Wakefield was 19 years of age when he sailed from England, in 1839, on the New Zealand Company vessel, Tory, as secretary to his uncle, Colonel William Wakefield. Wakefield was to oversee the foundation of a Company settlement in the Cook Strait region, where the country's capital city, Wellington, is now located. Land purchases from tribal owners were a priority for the colonizing agency. In their exploration of possible sites on both sides of the Strait, the Wakefields made contact with European whalers whose shore-based communities reflected their years of personal liaison with local Maori. Adventure in New Zealand was based upon the detailed journals that the younger Wakefield kept meticulously during his first visit to the country.

This source selection focuses on the ways in which children with European fathers and Maori mothers were perceived to be living a more civilized lifestyle as a consequence of European influences. Wakefield's comments are not overtly racist or judgmental. He simply reflects a contemporary British viewpoint that, of all known "native" people, Maori were the most capable of great "improvement"—providing, of course, that their exposure was to the more beneficial attributes of British society. The domesticity of Te Awaiti is in stark contrast to the widely-reported problems stemming from alcohol and licentiousness in the Bay of Islands, long a favorite harbor haven for deep-sea whaling crews.

The Colonial Childhoods Oral History Project (CCOHP) comprises recorded interviews with 165 New Zealanders, male and female, Maori and Pakeha, the majority of whom were born before 1903. Interviews focus on the period before an individual’s 15th birthday. Participants discussed a wide range of topics relating to the culture of childhood, including home life, sibling influences, school and church activities, leisure, chores, friends, hobbies, values, clothes, parents, favorite foods, and special occasions. They also responded to questions concerning sexuality, drink, and violence. Interviews generally lasted for two or three hours and were always preceded by a preliminary meeting with the interviewer during which ethical issues were covered and permission forms processed. Not all interviewees felt comfortable in talking about every topic, and CCOHP interviewers were sensitive in respecting their preferences. Those who did discuss sexuality were frank and forthright.

While a diversity of childhood experience was one very obvious finding of the project, some Pakeha patterns were apparent from the accumulated evidence. Wearing "hand-me-down" clothes was commonplace, particularly in larger families, as was sharing beds and bedrooms. Few informants felt that they had been well-instructed about sexuality, a topic that parents were generally reluctant to discuss. Those who grew up on farms tended to reach their own conclusions from observation of animal behavior. Town-dwellers relied more heavily on hearsay and, in the case of one boy, some straight talking from the local Scoutmaster. This was an era where pregnancy outside of marriage was very strongly condemned. Only one male interviewee alluded to tales of experimentation by a classmate.

Information on the ages used historically in western age of consent laws is not readily available. This table has been compiled from a combination of historical and contemporary sources. By 1880, the first date chosen, many western nations had established an age of consent for the first time, typically of 12 or 13 years. By 1920, when the influence of reform campaigns that established a new link between the age of consent and prostitution had run its course, most had revised their age upward, to 14 or 15 in European nations, and 16 in the Anglo-American world. In the last decades of the 20th century, states and nations with ages below those averages amended their laws to move closer to them. In Europe that growing conformity owed much to moves toward greater European integration. Given that the rationale for the age of consent has remained essentially unchanged in its emphasis on the need to protect 'immature' children, the table highlights the shifting and various definitions of childhood employed across time and cultures.