Providing a vital background to some of the pressing issues in contemporary New Zealand politics, this novel perspective on the distinctive foundations of the country’s welfare state raises issues concerning modern-day concepts of citizenship as this welfare state comes under challenge. Government policy has been linked to this evolving social contract between wage earners and the state; With the contract’s genesis in the migration of wage earners from Britain in the 1840s, New Zealand became an experimental laboratory, first promoting settlement of the land, then safeguarding the economic position of the male breadwinner, and—with the emergence of the welfare state in the early 20th century—protecting the standard of living of families. As it explains the social policies and how they changed over time, this book reveals how honoring this contract was the driving force behind its evolution.