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Story: Government and agriculture

Training ‘rehab’ soldiers

Video file

After the Second World War governments believed that New Zealand’s economic fortunes rested on agricultural exports, so much encouragement was given to boosting production. One initiative was to assist returned servicemen onto the land. As this film clip explains, the government provided them with training and offered finance to buy farms.

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Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga

Reference: Rehabilitation and You. National Film Unit, 1945

Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any re-use of this material.

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How to cite this page

Tony Nightingale, Government and agriculture – Subsidies and changing markets, 1946–1983, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/18071/training-rehab-soldiers (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Tony Nightingale, published 1 March 2009.