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Kōrero: Public service

Public servants: Census and Statistics Department staff, 1946

Image
Public servants: Census and Statistics Department staff, 1946

This scene of workers in a government department in 1946 would have looked much the same 50 years earlier. An all-male workforce sat at double desks, working with pens and inkwells on piles of official forms.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library, National Publicity Studios Collection

Reference: 1/2-034138-F; A1401

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.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Richard Shaw, Public service – What is the public service?, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/33008/public-servants-census-and-statistics-department-staff-1946 (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Richard Shaw, i tāngia i te 31 May 2012.