Single women as immigrant settlers in New Zealand, 1853-1871

Abstract

Between 1853 and 1871 approximately twelve thousand young, unmarried women arrived in New Zealand on assisted or free passages provided by the provincial governments. They were recruited to supply the demand for domestic servants and 'to balance the disproportion of the sexes' in the settler population. They came from the urban working class and rural labouring population of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The conditions under which they were recruited and conveyed to New Zealand differed from those for other sections of the immigrant population. Selection was more rigorous (especially in relation to 'moral character'), passages more heavily subsidised and an elaborate system of supervision was imposed during the voyage out. From a detailed survey of more than four thousand single women brought out by the Canterbury province, discussion follows the path of migrants from their origins in Great Britain through the voyage to look at domestic service, marriage patterns and family life in New Zealand. Allegations that single women who arrived in New Zealand as government immigrants were responsible for an increase in prostitution led to the passage of the Contagious Diseases Act in 1869. The study also examines voluntary efforts to promote and reform female emigration with special reference to the work of Maria Rye, co-founder of the Female Middle Class Emigration Society, who visited New Zealand in 1863-64.