Slant on war-time N.Z.

Press, 18 April 1979, Page 18

Slant on war-time N.Z.

A social survey of New Zealand during World War I — the final part of the “People at War” series published by the historical publications branch of the Department of Internal Affairs — is nearing completion. The authoress, Mrs Nancy Taylor, of Wellington, is a part-time librarian in the Beaglehole room at the Victoria University, Wellington, and editor of the Oxford University Press’s “Early Travellers in New Zealand,”

and “The Journal of Ensign Best,” a Turnbull Library monograph. “The survey is about how people in New Zealand reacted to the war as it happened, their attitudes and reactions to events and to the war regulations that were imposed,” Mrs Taylor said. Among facts described are the Home Guard and the Emergency Precautions Services which prepared against attack, the problems of pacifists and aliens, the role of schools and universities, rationing and shortages,

labour adjustments, the activities of women in and out of the work force, the American “invasion,” and censorship. Mrs Taylor said that newspapers were a main source of information, backed by official records and lightened by some personal memoirs. Mr I. Wards, editor of the historical publications branch, said it would be a large, comprehensive book, and one of the most important in the official war series.