Leaving the Grey UK
Advertisement encouraging emigration to New Zealand.
Queues outside the immigration office in London.
The Immigration Branch needed to advertise the scheme as widely as possible and mostly used the classified sections of British newspapers. Staff were willing to take advantage of any opportunity for publicity, however, such as having a stand at the 1951 Schoolboy’s Own Exhibition, from which a live programme was broadcast on the BBC.
In 1947 the National Film Unit was commissioned to make a film, Journey
for Three, designed to publicise the scheme by being shown at cinemas
in the United Kingdom. The 1953 royal
tour of New Zealand provided another
opportunity for publicity when Cliff Smith, the Chief Migration Officer,
appeared on the BBC’s Radio Newsreel to talk about its effect in stimulating
interest in migration in Britain, and in 1955 Immigration Branch staff
appeared on a television magazine-style programme aimed at under 21-year-olds.
Jack Brennan, the Chief Migration Officer in London at this time, remarked
that the combination of the Suez crisis, the Hungarian uprising and an increase
in petrol prices announced by the British government, resulted in counter
and telephone enquiries at New Zealand House being about four times higher
than normal.
International crises stimulated interest in emigration, but had little lasting effect on the volume of applications to emigrate.
Assisted Immigrants by Country
| Year | Great Britain | Netherlands | Austria | Germany | Denmark | Switzerland | Greece | Other |
| 1947 | 158 | |||||||
| 1948 | 1140 | |||||||
| 1949 | 1527 | |||||||
| 1950 | 2532 | |||||||
| 1951 | 2873 | 55 | ||||||
| 1952 | 3849 | 1100 | ||||||
| 1953 | 4872 | 2709 | ||||||
| 1954 | 5611 | 688 | ||||||
| 1955 | 3880 | 452 | ||||||
| 1956 | 4732 | 391 | ||||||
| 1957 | 4172 | 252 | 139 | 30 | - | - | - | - |
| 1958 | 4070 | 245 | 44 | 69 | 106 | 45 | - | - |
| 1959 | 4343 | 141 | 36 | 35 | 92 | 31 | - | - |
| 1960 | 2360 | 90 | 25 | 39 | 13 | 22 | - | - |
| 1961 | 2217 | 12 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1962 | 3474 | 84 | 14 | - | - | 10 | - | 2 |
| 1963 | 4283 | 42 | 33 | 27 | - | - | 137 | 10 |
| 1964 | 4171 | - | 6 | 16 | 5 | 14 | 130 | 5 |
| 1965 | 4300 | - | 9 | 12 | 5 | 11 | 29 | 34 |
| 1966 | 3963 | - | 19 | 7 | 8 | 27 | 18 | 5 |
| 1967 | 4020 | - | 9 | 9 | 10 | 36 | 11 | 2 |
| 1968 | 2732 | - | 2 | 4 | 5 | 17 | 4 | - |
| 1969 | 485 | - | - | 2 | - | 2 | 1 | - |
| 1970 | 377 | - | - | - | 2 | - | 1 | 2 |
| 1971 | 532 | - | - | - | 4 | 3 | - | - |
| Total | 76,673 | 6261 | 338 | 250 | 250 | 218 | 331 | 55 |
| Year | Great Britain | Netherlands | Austria | Germany | Denmark | Switzerland | Greece | Other |
Source: New Zealand Official Yearbook
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