1800-1849
1821 Oct First recorded wages dispute when Maori sawyers in the Bay of Islands went on strike for the right to be paid in money or in gunpowder.
1840 Feb Samuel Duncan Parnell (a carpenter) lands at Petone and refuses to work for George Hunter unless he can have an 8-hour day starting at 8 a.m. Reputed to have said: "There are 24 hours given us per day and eight of these should be for work, eight for sleep, and the remaining eight for recreation and in which men do what little things they do for themselves."
1841 Jul Labourers for the New Zealand Company at New Plymouth went on strike in protest at the rise in the cost of the company-supplied provisions. They were forced back to work the next day on the same conditions, but had to work an hour longer for the same pay.
1842 Wellington Benevolent Society of Carpenters and Joiners formed.
1846 Man sentenced to seven days hard labour in the Auckland Magistrate's Court, because he only cut three tons of firewood while his boss thought he should have cut four.
1848 Eight Hour Day Association formed in Dunedin, to campaign for an 8-hour day. This gradually spread to the majority of centres where workers' organisations were developing and became a central campaign of unions and trade and labour councils.
1849 Feb Attempt by the New Zealand Company to break the 8-hour day agreement was beaten off.
