Some Social and Demographic Influences on New Zealand Family Structure from 1886

Abstract

This is a study in historical social demography. It explores associations between social structure and conditions and patterns of family formation, growth and dissolution as New Zealand developed from a colonial society to a settled community and through subsequent social phases to the present period. Following the theory that there are patterns of marriage, child-bearing and family dissolution which are characteristic of a society at different stages of social and economic development, it is consequently a study of the changes in family structure that are involved in a transition from colonialism to establishment and in the emergence of a welfare state.