During the First World War, ideas of duty and sacrifice were a dominant
characteristic of public discourse in New Zealand. Specifically, concern centred on a
perceived inequality of sacrifice, which saw brave soldiers die on the front lines,
whilst other men remained on the home front, apparently avoiding duty. This thesis
charts the prevailing and powerful ideas that circulated during wartime New Zealand
around these two stereotypes; on the one hand there was the soldier, the ideal of
service and duty; on the other, the conscientious objector, a target for the derogatory
label of 'shirker'.
While there are a few select critical works which examine the experiences of New
Zealand World War One conscientious objectors, such We Will Not Cease (1939) and
Armageddon or Calvary (1919), there is a near complete absence of studies which
examine the home front and ask how conscientious objectors were perceived and
consequently judged as they were. It is the contention of this thesis that ideas around
the soldier and the 'shirker' were interrelated stereotypes and that both images
emerged from the process of mass mobilisation; a highly organised war effort which
was largely dependent for its success upon the cooperation of wider civilian society.
In sum, the thesis examines and analyses the ideas within mainstream New Zealand
society as they appeared in public sources (notably newspapers, cartoons and
government publications), and in doing so, tracks how social mores and views
towards duty, sacrifice and service were played out at a time of national and
international crisis.
