<P> New Zealand initially expressed interest in joining the proposed Federation of the Australian colonies, attending the 1891 National Australia Convention in Sydney . Interest in the proposed Australian Federation faded and New Zealand decided against joining the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 . New Zealand instead changed from being a colony to a separate "Dominion" in 1907, equal in status to Australia and Canada . Dominion status was a public mark of the self - governance that had evolved over half a century through responsible government . Just under one million people lived in New Zealand in 1907 and cities such as Auckland and Wellington were growing rapidly . </P> <P> In New Zealand, prohibition was a moralistic reform movement begun in the mid-1880s by the Protestant evangelical and Nonconformist churches and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and after 1890 by the Prohibition League . It never achieved its goal of national prohibition . It was a middle - class movement which accepted the existing economic and social order; the effort to legislate morality assumed that individual redemption was all that was needed to carry the colony forward from a pioneering society to a more mature one . However, both the Church of England and the largely Irish Catholic Church rejected prohibition as an intrusion of government into the church's domain, while the growing labour movement saw capitalism rather than alcohol as the enemy . Reformers hoped that the women's vote, in which New Zealand was a pioneer, would swing the balance, but the women were not as well organised as in other countries . Prohibition had a majority in a national referendum in 1911, but needed a 60% majority to pass . The movement kept trying in the 1920s, losing three more referenda by close votes; it managed to keep in place a 6 pm closing hour for pubs and Sunday closing (leading to the so - called six o'clock swill). The Depression and war years effectively ended the movement . </P> <P> The country remained an enthusiastic member of the British Empire, and 110,000 men fought in World War I (see New Zealand Expeditionary Force). 16,688 died . Conscription had been in force since 1909, and while it was opposed in peacetime there was less opposition during the war . The labour movement was pacifistic, opposed the war, and alleged that the rich were benefitting at the expense of the workers . It formed the New Zealand Labour Party in 1916 . Māori tribes that had been close to the government sent their young men to volunteer . Unlike in Britain, relatively few women became involved . Women did serve as nurses; 640 joined the services and 500 went overseas . </P> <P> New Zealand forces captured Western Samoa from Germany in the early stages of the war, and New Zealand administered the country until Samoan Independence in 1962 . However Samoans greatly resented the imperialism, and blamed inflation and the catastrophic 1918 flu epidemic on New Zealand rule . </P>

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