PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

views on society as a whole, not just Maori, was an issue that will be revisited in
future chapters.
During this period, immunisation and other health matters began to be promoted by
the Department using various forms of media. Nevertheless, parents were 'told' to
immunise their children and why they must do this, with little information given about
the procedure or the vaccine itself. This was a source of contention with a few parents
who wished to receive more information, but nevertheless the majority accepted
immunisation for their children based on medical advice. This level of compliance by
parents to the dictates of the medical profession remained in place throughout the
1950s and 1960s.
Parents were perceived by the Department as negligent if they did not immunise their
children and much of the promotional material was aimed at this group of defectors,
estimated at approximately 20 to 25 percent. However, it was only towards the end of
the 1950s that the Department and the medical profession began to perceive that
parents might have other reasons for not immunising their children rather than being
'neglectful'. Issues such as transport, the number of small children and the economic
position of the family all played a part in determining the immunisation status of
family members. The cost of immunisation, certainly in the 1960s, began to be a
much more prohibitive factor and will be further explored in chapter six.
This period also witnessed the most visible opposition to immunisation until the
1980s with the activities of the BUAV. Nevertheless, many interviewees whose
children were born during the 1940s and 1950s had never heard of the Union so its
impact on the views of parents as a whole was likely to have been small. Parents who
opposed immunisation at this time usually made the decision based on a lifestyle
choice rather than from anti-immunisation literature, and often kept their views to
themselves. The vocal BUAV disappeared from the anti-immunisation scene in the
mid-1950s when the society turned its focus on anti-vivisection and it was certainly
not missed by the Health Department. It would be another 30 years before the space
was filled again.
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