The earliest part of this period is characterised by strong national support for collective state welfare principles and a Keynesian approach to a planned economy which had seen New Zealand through the second world war. In the 1950s, the country could rejoice with the Right Honourable S. G. Holland, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in the National Government, over the state of the economy
We pledge ourselves to work for the benefit of the people as a whole in an endeavour to build a country in which every one can enjoy a life of happiness and good health with freedom and security (Holland, 1950: 29).
Of course he could, literally, afford such sentiments. In his financial statement on 18 October 1951 he reported
New Zealand 's finances are in good shape. OUT prospects are excellent. Our greatest anxiety is the preservation of peace.
1 8v which I mean social work that is defined by professional social workers themselves. rather than by
Our main immediate problems are those arising from prosperity which calls for just as much if not more wisdom and care to manage than does .adversity. When things are going well is the time to guard against carelessness (Holland, 1951: 17).
He had good reasons for his optimism2 for he was able to claim that
Our national finances are in sound and healthy condition, production is high, there is employment for all, there are more goods available to the people than ever before, there is an unsatisfied demand for our primary products, our total overseas earnings are substantially greater than our total overseas spending, notwithstanding the removal of restrictions on the expenditure of sterling funds (Holland, 1951: 1 7).
I have quoted at length because the expression of confidence and abundance is in such contrast to the circumstances in the late sixties and seventies when, as Professor McCreary succinctly put it when interviewed, "the money dried up". Then, despite the increasing need for social services, the money to finance the education and employment of social workers was to come under increasing pressure.
Mr Holland, Prime Minister from 1949 to 1957, took on a country which was tired of war-time stringency and wanted to taste the benefits of material prosperity. The immediate post-war years were characterised by full employment. The Korean war (1950) created a demand for New Zealand wool and this boosted the economy. "Competitive free enterprise, freedom from bureaucratic dictation" and "an easing in the burden of taxation" were the National Party's vote catchers after the war (Chap man, 1992: 370).
These were years which witnessed the migration of Maori to urban centres in search of employment, together with the influx of immigrants from the Pacific Islands and the last great wave of immigrants from the United Kingdom. The country was desperately trying to educate its citizens and give them the necessary skills for a developing and industrialising nation. In view of the costs of providing training, these debates were grounded in the economic and political contexts of the day (Beeby, 1992: 11).
� In 1 951, the number o f (men) registered Wlemployed was 24' (NZ Census o f Population and Dwellings,
The economy had boomed after the war, unemployment was not a problem, but getting teachers and other professionals qualified inevitably took time. In 1944, Beeby, for example, was "riding the razor edge of disagreement" when he expressed amazement at "the amount of practical wisdom in untrained workers", but pointed out "the waste of their time getting it" (McCreary, 1971a: 9). This was a tactful way of suggesting that the apprenticeship system alone was inadequate for social work education, given that he knew that a university setting was not necessarily seen as the most appropriate site for a school of social work. There has always been a fear that an academic setting for training could result in distancing practitioners from the workface. The link to practice was given importance by those who suggested that lecturers should be involved in work with social work clients.
In 1957, �he Labour Party returned to office. The country experienced the destabilising effects of a collapse in the wool, butter and cheese markets. After a difficult three years, National replaced Labour reaping the rewards of Labour's success in turning the economy round which left the country poised for prosperity in the sixties. The political price of Labour's achievement was unpopularity as the electorate resented the high taxation levels set in 1958 (the Black Budget) and chafed over the restrictive import regulations (Chapman, 1992: 380).
Mr Holyoake was Prime Minister during the sixties, the years of stability, prosperity, flower power, the Vietnam war and student rebellion. As the decade drew to a close, the country entered a new recession, with unemployment and outward migration. A change in mood occurred in which voices of dissent were raised and some began to recognise that inequalities and injustices were present in Aotearoa/New Zealand and that some were more equal than others.
A lack of analysis by post-war governments as to what philosophies of welfare should underpin their social policies was noted, (Jack & Robb, in Trlin, 1977: 29).3 The question of freedom of choice for individual citizens
3 Ea�lier, the United Nations Social and Economic Council had urged international communities to take the
initiative for a more planned approach to social (Gatenby, 1976:7). Aotearoa/New Zealand
responded with a series of national councils of three were the New Zealand Council of Social Services ( 1 965) and the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services and the New Zealand Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations in 1968.
in relation to alternative systems of welfare, examined by Oram, rehearsed the classic arguments between proponents of a welfare system gover�ed by market forces and one supported by communal efforts (Oram, 1969: 43). This is a crucial choice that Aotearoa/New Zealanders have had to address. The decision closely affects social work education in as much as social wor� takes its shape in accordance with the social service delivery systet:n un.der.
which it functions and this, in turn, is contingent on current philos9phjes of state welfare. It was in this context that Minn talked about
'.
The danger in the present fashion of equating all human activity with a financial profit-and-loss type of book-keeping. The trouble with that approach is that the cost of not taking action because "we can't afford it" could well, if it has not already done so, lead New Zealand down the same path to disintegration, conflict and despair which now faces those nations which followed this lack of financial investment in the last and present century (Minn, 1971: 5)
Professor Minn may have been characterised by his successors as following the casework tradition, but these words indicate a firm grasp of the political implications of giving priority to economic well-being as a means by which to measure social well-being.
Political and economic circumstances providing the backdrop for social work education were, then, initially benign as far as social work was concerned. There were fewer pressures on social services in the early years while the economy was healthy, unemployment, for example, was negligible in the early years. As Aotearoa /New Zealand moved into the late sixties, the economy came under pressure and the political mood became much less confident. These early years witnessed the rural migration of Maori into the cities in search of work and a share of the material and citizenship rewards for solidarity during the war.