Scottish emigrants to New Zealand, 1840-1880: motives, means and background
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Date
1990Author
McClean, Rosalind Ruth
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Abstract
The period 1840 to 1880 is important for the demographic history of both Scotland and New Zealand. During the second half of the nineteenth century Scotland had the second or third highest rate in Europe of emigration to destinations overseas. New Zealand became a British territory in 1840 and in the four following decades immigration, not natural increase, was the main source of New Zealand's population growth. Most of the immigrants who entered New Zealand during these years were born in the UK, and of these about one quarter were Scots. Between 1853 (when estimates can first be made) and 1880 Scottish emigrants who went to New Zealand account for 12 per cent of the gross total of Scots emigrating overseas. This was a significant minority of all Scots who left the land of their birth in this period, and for a time emigration to New Zealand was a highly visible movement which captured the popular imagination in Scotland.
The thesis asks 'who' were the emigrants who left Scotland for New
Zealand, 'why' did they travel 15 000 miles to Britain's farthest colony when
other 'established' destinations were closer and cheaper to reach, and 'how'
were they enabled to go. As a preliminary to answering these questions, the
geographic and social background of the emigrants is explored. The thesis
takes a 'longitudinal' approach: nominal data derived from New Zealand
ships' lists are traced back to a variety of Scottish sources including vital
registers and unpublished records of the census enumerators. Wherever
possible the thesis compares these data with similar evidence from other
studies and finds that emigration from Scotland to New Zealand was not
aberrant from the general experience of Scottish emigration, although Scots
who went to New Zealand had a number of distinctive characteristics which
set them apart from, say, Scottish emigrants who went to the USA or to
Canada. The thesis finds that these characteristics were not the resultant of
selective criteria such as the regulations which governed eligibility for an
assisted passage on an emigrant ship. However, Scots who went to New
Zealand took advantage of cost-cutting facilities whenever they could.
This thesis aims to provide a quantitative contribution to both Scottish
and New Zealand history. In addition, the thesis treats this particular
exodus of people as a case-study to explore a number of themes current in
the literature of nineteenth century European emigration. These themes
include: the relationship between emigration and the social and economic
origins of the emigrants; the relationship between emigration and internal
mobility; the role of interventionist forces, such as recruiting agencies, in
effecting the process of emigration; and the extent to which emigration can
be explained by the self-generating effect of emigration 'chains'. The thesis
contributes new data and ideas with relevance to each of these themes.
Patterns of emigration from Scotland, and indeed from all of Britain, are
found to diverge significantly from common trends detected in the
emigration flow from other European countries.