National Film Unit (1941-1990)

Government involvement in film making had begun on a regular basis in 1923 with the formation of a publicity office attached to the Department of Internal Affairs. Scenic "shorts" and travelogues were produced for local and overseas tourist promotion. A private company
"Filmcraft Ltd" was contracted to process these movies, and it built the Miramar Film Studios in 1928.

In 1930 the Publicity Office became part of the new Department of Industry and Commerce, Tourist and Publicity. The department acquired Filmcraft's interest in the Miramar Studios, which were to become the first home of the National Film Unit. 

The NFU was established in 1941 to promote New Zealand’s war effort domestically and nation-building during peacetime. By the time it was sold to Television New Zealand in 1990, the unit had made thousands of films capturing life in New Zealand.

For a purchase price of $2.5 million, TVNZ acquired: the Film Unit land and buildings, valued at $19.5 million; book debts owed to the Unit, estimated at least a million dollars; the remainder of a government production grant which stood at around $1 million; as well as the existing facilities, equipment and a very considerable library of Film Unit productions.

https://www.nationdatesnz.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Archives-NZ-n.d..pdf