Pay Packets and Stone Walls : A Memoir of Women-s Causes and Love of the Land

Elizabeth Orr has made a long and distinguished contribution to the campaign for equal pay and pay equity for women in New Zealand. The stories she tells in her memoir cover this and many more aspects of her varied and colourful life.

Born in Wellington in 1929, Elizabeth's early education was enlivened by stints on backblocks farms. At university she mixed with talented literary personalities and future lawmakers; she married Gordon Orr, later Secretary for Justice and a member of the Waitangi Tribunal.

In 1966 Elizabeth led a delegation to government to establish the National Advisory Council for the Employment of Women. She helped set the terms for the Commission on Equal Pay and saw the 1972 Equal Pay Act put in place.

In the 1990s Elizabeth became the first female chancellor of Victoria University.