British and Irish immigration 1840-1914

Home away from 'home'

Who were the ancestors of Pakeha New Zealand? Where did they come from and what sort of people were they? These are some of the questions which this exhibition sets out to answer.

The answers are drawn from a major project on the immigrants to New Zealand from Britain and Ireland being undertaken by the History Group and funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. The project was designed to explore the notion that Pakeha — and in part New Zealand — identity can only be understood by finding out more about who actually did migrate to New Zealand.

The figures used here are primarily based upon a scientific sample and analysis of death registers — although the whole project has drawn on a wide range of sources such as shipping records and military records to provide samples of other groups. These include those assisted by the New Zealand Company, those assisted by Canterbury province, the Otago and Westland miners, immigrants to Auckland before 1860, and those assisted to New Zealand by the New Zealand Government in the 1870s.

It is hoped that all the findings will be published in a book which will cover the period 1800–1945. The figures in this exhibition cover only the period up to 1914.

The project was conceived and has been supervised by Jock Phillips who has written this web feature. Terry Hearn has developed the statistical design, analysed the data and written most of the draft manuscript. Nicholas Bayley has spent hours collecting statistical material and has researched the cultural and economic background to the migrants. 

These findings are presented now in response to repeated requests from historians and genealogists.