The condition of Māori housing in the early 20th century was generally poor. Many homes were small, makeshift shacks that did little to keep the weather out, detrimentally affecting the health of occupants. Government policies in the 1930s sought to improve things by offering loans to build new homes on ancestral lands, but poorer communities could not afford to service the loans and continued to live in squalid conditions. These two rural Māori homes were photographed in the 1930s.
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Alexander Turnbull Library, New Zealand Labour Party Papers
Reference: MS-Papers-0270-027-02 (top)
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.