Where to? - British and Irish immigration

Where did they go to?

British-born population living in New Zealand provinces in 1871

	English	Scottish	Irish
Auckland	54.9%	17%	27.2%
Taranaki	69.6%	9.5%	20.5%
Hawke's Bay	55.2%	20.9%	23.2%
Wellington	63.5%	20%	15.4%
Nelson	56.4%	15.9%	25.9%
Marlborough	62.1%	20.4%	16.4%
Canterbury	62.7%	16.9%	19.4%
Westland	40.1%	19.9%	37.9%
Otago	31%	51.5%	16.9%
Southland	24.4%	61.4%	13.9%
New Zealand	49.7%	27.3%	22%

*The Welsh have not been included in these figures as they made up less than 2% of the population of any province

The table and graph suggest:

• There was strong regional variation within New Zealand as to where different groups settled.
• In the 19th century Wellington and Canterbury provinces were dominated by the English. This in part reflects their New Zealand Company origins.
• Auckland had a strong representation from Ireland which reflected partly the influence of the early military settlers and partly the free migration of Irish across the Tasman to Auckland.
• Westland also had a large number of people from Ireland. Many of these were miners who had migrated across the Tasman from the Victorian gold fields to the West Coast gold rushes.
• Otago and Southland had a majority of British immigrants who came from Scotland. Again this reflected the character of the first organised settlement.