Prostitution in New Zealand - History

History

The earliest known examples of the exchange of sex for material gain in New Zealand, outside of the context of slavery by Māori, occurred in the early period of contact between indigenous Māori and European and American sailors. Along with food, water and timber, sex was one of the major commodities exchanged for European goods. The Bay of Islands and in particular the town of Kororareka was notorious for this and brothels proliferated. It is not clear whether all of these exchanges necessarily constituted prostitution in the usual sense of the word. In some cases the sex may have been part of a wider partnership between a tribe and a ship's crew, akin to a temporary marriage alliance. The amount of choice women had about their participation seems to have varied. Throughout this period there was a severe gender imbalance in the settler population and women were in short supply.

In the nineteenth century, prostitution was generally referred to as the 'Social Evil'. As with other British dependencies, New Zealand inherited both statute and case law from the United Kingdom, for instance the 1824 UK Vagrancy Act was in force till New Zealand passed its own Vagrancy Act (1866–1884). These included reference to the common prostitute. New Zealand was also amongst those dependencies that British authorities pressured into passing Contagious Diseases Acts, New Zealand's was in force from 1869-1910. These were oppressive Acts, based on the belief, as found in the 1922 report, that women represented vectors for the spread of venereal diseases. It was replaced by the Social Hygiene Act 1917, although these fears reappeared throughout the British Empire in both World Wars. In the post war period the concern was more with 'promiscuity', although prostitution was seen as an extreme form of this. The gendered rationale and practice of venereal disease policy formed a focus for early feminist activism.