| Book Review | Labour History, 95 | The History Cooperative

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BOOK REVIEW

Margaret Tennant, The Fabric of Welfare: Voluntary Organisations, Government and Welfare in New Zealand, 1840–2005, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2007. pp. 274. NZ $49.99 paper.

There are three ways in which the population of a nation can respond in an organised way to social need in their midst. One is for the well off to help the less fortunate by forming and supporting a particular type of non-profit organisation known in common law countries as charities. Another is for the state to provide income support and shelter and for government employees to provide needed services. A third is for the less well off and some of the better off to contribute to a mutual or self-help organisation that provides medical services and manages a fund that can be drawn on whenever one of their number experiences hardship. In the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century these were generally known as friendly societies. Margaret Tennant has written a highly detailed study of the first two types of response in New Zealand. She acknowledges the third, but pays it little attention.

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