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Story: Samoans

Workers celebrate Christmas

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Workers celebrate Christmas

In the 1970s Samoans working in Auckland factories were well regarded by their employers, as this picture suggests. However, they were badly hit by the downturn in industrial production which followed the abolition of tariffs in the late 1980s. Their levels of unemployment were higher and their incomes lower than those for New Zealanders generally.

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New Zealand Herald

Reference: 19 December 1975

by Keith Waldegrave

Permission of the New Zealand Herald must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Lupematasila Melani Anae, Samoans – Life in New Zealand, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/1570/workers-celebrate-christmas (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Lupematasila Melani Anae, published 4 March 2009, reviewed and revised 7 September 2022 with assistance from Lupematasila Melani Anae.