Pakeha settlers
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This article deals with the main differences between the ethnic and occupational social composition of Pākehā immigrants who journeyed to Auckland, the Wellington/Hawkes Bay region, Canterbury and Otago during the 19th century. It also discusses the major push and pull factors that persuaded migrants to make such a long and uncomfortable voyage from Britain.
Pākehā immigrants journeyed to New Zealand from all over Europe. Their destination was often either Auckland, the Wellington/Hawkes Bay region, Canterbury or Otago which were the main centres of New Zealand. The ethnic and occupational social composition of these New Zealand Europeans or Pākehā varied from region to region. One major group of Pākehā arrived from Britain enduring long, arduous voyages in the hope of a new life and new job opportunities in New Zealand. Various factors encouraged them both to leave Britain and choose New Zealand as their destination.
Although there was minimal immigration to New Zealand directly after 1769 when Captain James Cook discovered New Zealand, this changed in 1840 when Edward Gibbon Wakefield established the New Zealand Company. This company was established to attract settlers from England to set up homes and farms in New Zealand. The objective of the company was to bring over a ‘slice of England.’ The company wanted a range of people from working class to upper class to establish a similar class system in New Zealand as was in England. Settlers were offered paid passage and cheap land in many areas throughout New Zealand to attract them, it worked and settlers began to arrive in droves.
Wellington was the first official settlement set up by The New Zealand Company for recently arrived immigrants. The first settlers arrived at Petone from England in 1840. At this point the majority of immigrants came from England, particularly London. Most of those who arrived were timber workers, bullock drivers, shopkeepers, rope makers and artisans. This posed a problem as Wellington was an agricultural settlement but there were few people with the skills to farm the land. It was clear that neither the occupational or social composition of this early settlement was varied and as a result this assisted in giving Wellington a shaky beginning as a developing settlement.
Wanganui was the second Wakefield settlement to be established although it was set up with some reluctance. Late 1840 Wellington settlers found that there was insufficient land available in their original settlement to satisfy their land claims and Colonel Wakefield was forced to offer them the option of land in the Wanganui settlement. This resulted in the social and occupational composition of Wanganui being much the same as Wellington. There was already a Māori population in Wanganui and they disputed the questionable land purchase by the New Zealand Company. There was unrest between the Māori and Pākehā until 1848, when Donald Maclean an assistant to the Native Protector sorted out boundaries and land title by purchasing the area officially.
Nelson, which was established around the same time as Wanganui, was designed to be bigger with a larger economy than Wellington. Unfortunately the development did not go well. Only half of the sections were sold to settlers and the majority of these owners were absentees meaning they remained in the United Kingdom and used their New Zealand property for financial purposes, not as a prospective home. This resulted in a population of only 2000 by the end of May 1842. Many of the settlers were working class as richer owners made the decision to stay in England. This meant that Nelson’s settlers had similar skills o each other so there was not a variety of workers.
New Plymouth was the following settlement to be established. Originally the development of the settlement was organised by The Plymouth Company but they merged with the New Zealand Company in 1840, resulting in New Plymouth becoming the next Wakefield settlement. Workers were attracted from England by being offered jobs working on establishing roads in the New Plymouth area. This originally brought a large amount of settlers to the region but in 1843 it was no longer financially viable for the English company in charge of this arrangement to offer this opportunity. The company in England to reduce spending gave the local agent and as a result they ended the offer of employment provided by the company. Because of the lack of employment opportunities that this resulted in many settlers left new Plymouth choosing to move to Auckland or even Adelaide. This did leave more job opportunities for the remaining settlers and by the mid 1850s New Plymouth began to prosper; by that time it had a population of 2000. It had the resources to export wheat, barley and oats to other settlements and the land was extremely cultivatable.
In 1842 The New Zealand Company decided that they would establish a settlement for Scottish, Presbyterian immigrants. Fred Tuckett was employed to find the settlement and do the surveying. He settled on Otago in the South Island. Because of the isolation in Otago and the lack of previous development in the area, it was difficult to attract prospective farm owners. However the resident agent for The New Zealand Company who lived in the area was determined to get the scheme underway. A promotional campaign started up in Scotland and a public meeting in the Glasgow Trades Hall inspired people enough to warrant the use of two ships to transport he new settlers to New Zealand. It did take time to establish the settlement in Otago mainly because the majority f the Scottish settlers were only working class and relatively poor. This meant that occupation wise they did everything for themselves, unable to afford to employ labour. Once the settlement had got under way most settlers had succeeded in establishing themselves on farms and were making money from agricultural work.
In 184 The Canterbury Association was formed after a meeting between Edward Wakefield and businessman John Robert Godley. ‘The Canterbury Association had clear and simple plans. A block of one million acres (4,000 km²) was to be acquired from the New Zealand Company and sold to intending immigrants at £3 per acre.’ (Century of Change, ). The Canterbury Association did not want to have the same problems that The New Zealand Company had with absentee ownership in their settlements. To combat this, the Association required land purchasers or their representatives to be present in the colony before they could buy land. Unfortunately land sales were disappointing and even after a campaign promoting the Canterbury settlement the first batch of settlers included 545 with assisted passages and only 40 paying the full price. Because there were so few people there was not a varied range of labourers available, the majority of settlers were farmers and as a result it took longer to get the settlement underway.
Auckland was an unplanned settlement, established solely by settlers themselves through migration and immigration to the area. By 1853 there were approximately 8000 people living in the Auckland area with a wide range of skills among them and with about 17000 acres (69 km²) in crops Auckland - the unplanned settlement – was the closest in New Zealand to an agricultural settlement. Auckland established itself so well that Lt. Gov. Hobson picked it out to become the new capital of New Zealand and as a result, the land was officially purchased from the Resident Māori in the area – the Ngāti Whātua.
The voyage from England to New Zealand was long and arduous and often took over three months so settlers choosing to move to New Zealand had o have good incentives. One factor that attracted people to New Zealand was the fact that it was such a young country. It was not highly political like England, did not have a rigid class structure and in their opinion, New Zealand provided equal opportunities for all new immigrants. This ‘newness’ gave settlers a chance to start from scratch at te same level everybody else was starting and to many people who may have struggled financially in England, his was very attractive.
Campaign posters advertising New Zealand in England did give many settlers false hopes, manipulating their reasons. These posters often described New Zealand as an island paradise, complete with white sandy beaches and coconut trees. This heavenly image also did a lot to attract settlers to New Zealand, as it was such a welcome contrast to the rain and cold weather in England. Many settlers also believed that the paradise New Zealand was presented as would be good for their families health as the warm weather as well as the small population in New Zealand could keep dangerous diseases that were rife in England to a minimum in New Zealand.
Another factor in attracting people to New Zealand was families who had already settled writing to their relatives back in Great Britain telling them what a wonderful place New Zealand was. Sometimes these letters were since and people truly had discovered a much better life in New Zealand and wanted their relatives to share in the spoils, but sometimes there were other motives. Pure loneliness and isolation could encourage people to write exaggerated letters to their relatives in the hope that they would make New Zealand sound so good that their extended families would come and join them thus providing them with some comfort. There were also settlers who were too afraid to admit to their families ‘back home’ that the had made a mistake in coming to New Zealand and so, to save face they chose to exaggerate the positive sides of living in New Zealand and keep quiet about the negative factors. This writing of letters by settlers back to their families in the United Kingdom resulted in what’s called a ‘chain reaction’ as more and more people were encouraged to come out and join their families.
Another factor in attracting people to New Zealand was undoubtedly the prospect of owning land. The New Zealand Company had purchased (not always legally) large amounts of land from local Māori, which they were willing to sell to settlers at a low price as a way of attracting them to New Zealand. The scheme worked, thousands of people who would have had no hope of owning land in the United Kingdom were given the opportunity to do s In New Zealand. Settlers found this attractive because they could farm it and make money from it as well as being able to keep it in the family for future generations.
The settlements of Wellington, Wanganui, Nelson, New Plymouth, Otago, Canterbury and Auckland were vital in allowing New Zealand to prosper. Although their development did not always go according to plan, they provided New Zealand with a good foundation of settlements in which farming and industry could be established so that eventually New Zealand could become a viable country fro trade. Although there was not originally a large range of occupations and races in the society, the establishment of large towns did provide opportunity for the occupational and social composition to become more diverse as more settlers arrived. New Zealand did have many problems as a developing country but often the life it offered prospective settlers was better than anything they could have hoped for in Great Britain. The chance of jobs, land ownership and a healthier environment for children to grow up in was often worth the long voyage and hard work which were necessities for new immigrants.
