The Company Advertises for Settlers but choose them Carefully

THE Company succeeded in getting men of a very high type to join in the colonisation of New Zealand. These were attracted by Wakefield’s ideas of selling the Company’s land only at a fairly high price and then spending the money thus obtained in giving free passages to labourers and craftsmen, so that the young colony would have not only men with money but men with practical skill to begin it. Though it had found support among educated men, the Company had to carry out a second campaign to collect labourers to emigrate. These men were always referred to as ‘ emigrants,’ a term rather unpopular with their social superiors.

Country districts all over England were placarded with posters appealing to, young men with families to go to New Zealand, offering free passages and pocket-money on the voyage, as well as guaranteed employment in New Zealand with the Company if private employers were not forthcoming. The Company had agents recruiting for it everywhere and paid them 40/- for each married couple they persuaded to go. Even so it was difficult to get all the men they needed.

The Company made thorough search into the character of the applicants, even inquiring minutely into the standing of gentlemen who recommended emigrants. Then it would take only people between the ages of fourteen and thirty-five, except to prevent the break-up of a family. Couples with more than two young children were refused. Single women could go only if they were suitably looked after on board, and the number of single men taken was limited by the number of single women. The Company was anxious not to have too many men, the usual state of affairs in a new country. Of course, many emigrants, like the gentry in the cabin, paid their own steerage passages. This was facilitated by the granting of free passages to whoever bought land up to three-quarters of its value. A cabin passage cost £75, a steerage passage £18.