Pakeha settlers

Pākehā settlers were European emigrants who journeyed to New Zealand, and more specifically to Auckland, the Wellington/Hawkes Bay region, Canterbury and Otago during the 19th century. The ethnic and occupational social composition of these New Zealand Europeans or Pākehā varied from region to region.

There was minimal immigration to New Zealand directly after 1769 when Captain James Cook discovered New Zealand. Between 1805 and 1835 the European population grew very slowly. Most Europeans were itinerant sailors. The Bay of Islands and the Hokianga in Northland had the most Europeans with about 200 in the 1830s. Because there were almost no European women, European men lived with Maori women and the population of part Europeans grew faster than the purely European population. Before 1835, most migrants were runaway sailors, escaped convicts, sealers, whalers and missionaries with their families. Initially most part European children grew up mainly as Maori, but able to speak fluent English. Some of these children were sent to Australia by their fathers to receive a formal education.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield established the New Zealand Company in 1839. 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 the possibility of eventually buying land at a price low enough to attract them, but high enough to make them work manually for a few years to earn it. This principle was applied in many areas throughout New Zealand. Generally it worked and settlers began to arrive in droves.

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