Story: Roads

The economic depression of the 1930s did much to improve the state of New Zealand’s roads. From 1929 to 1934 some 100,000 men were unemployed. The government put many to work on road building and maintenance. Men lived in camps by the sides of the roads they were building. There was little in the way of mechanisation, and most found themselves at the end of a pick, shovel or wheelbarrow.