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Story: Government and agriculture

New Zealand agriculture and the war effort

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New Zealand agriculture and the war effort

The government’s control of the economy increased in the Second World War. Meat and dairy products were rationed so that more could be sent to Britain for the war effort. This early 1940s poster promotes New Zealand farming as crucial to the British Empire – dairy, meat, fruit and wool are the ‘sinews of war’.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: Eph-E-TRADE-1940s-01

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.

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How to cite this page

Tony Nightingale, Government and agriculture – Controlling the war economy, 1939–1945, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/ephemera/18068/new-zealand-agriculture-and-the-war-effort (accessed 25 June 2026).

Story by Tony Nightingale, published 1 March 2009.