1 4. The Great Migration, 1871-1890 Context: The 1860s ended, after years of conflict, in recession, high public debt, growing strain between central and provincial governments, and low levels of net immigration. Vogel’s answer was an expansionist policy which, despite some opposition within the colony, included both capital borrowing and the introduction of immigrants on a large scale. 1 In July 1869, he outlined his proposals to encourage renewed immigration, referring to tangible inducements which included ‘deferred payments and ... guaranteed employment on arrival,’ while insisting that the ‘old world’ problem of a pauperised ‘submerged tenth’ would not reappear, nor would New Zealand become a ‘receptacle’ for ‘the refuse populations of large towns and cities, composed of beings hopelessly diseased in body and mind, deficient in all capacity for useful labour, vagrant and idle alike by habit and inclination, paupers by profession, and glorifying in being so.’ 2 Vogel also hoped that immigration in association with public works like roads and railways would settle down the frontier. New settlement, especially on land confiscated from Maori, might improve security. Vogel’s proposals implied planning and organisation on a large scale, and the careful selection of migrants. In fact, the Immigration and Public Works Bill, introduced into Parliament in 1870 simply empowered the government to enter into contracts to select and bring to New Zealand the number and type of immigrants requested by the provincial superintendents. What followed over the next few years was more extensive. It eventually included the provision of subsidised and free passages, a scheme which allowed relatives, friends and employers in the colony to nominate immigrants, the centralisation of the recruitment drive in the London-based Agency- General, and then extensive efforts using recruiting agents and lecturers to attract particularly agricultural labourers and single women. 1 It must have seemed to Vogel that a real opportunity existed for enlisting the direct assistance of the imperial government. In February 1870, the British Government noted that ‘large numbers of well- conducted industrious labourers’ could not find employment in the United Kingdom while there existed ‘in most of the Colonies a more extensive demand for labour than the labouring class on the spot can supply…’asked the colonies to furnish details of the classes of labour most required. See Copy of a circular despatched by a recent mail to the governors of different colonies on the subject of emigration, BPP 1870.xlix.595. For some of the opposition within New Zealand, see Otago Daily Times 31 August 1870; Grey River Argus 20 September 1871; and NZPD 13, 1872, pp.127-128. 2 Appendices, Journals of the House of Representatives (AJHR) B2, 1870, p.19.
The Great Migration, 1871-1890
Aug 04, 2023
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