Welcome

Welcome to our little blog, this is a Campaign Poster Free Zone.

Are you considering a move to New Zealand? perhaps you're thinking of living there long term, joining family or just want to sample the lifestyle for a while and then move on?

This is a blog dedicated to giving you as much information as possible to enable you to make an informed choice because it's always better to go into these things with eyes wide open. There is a wealth of information on the world wide web about the upsides of New Zealand. They centre mostly around the beautiful landscape, how pure it is, the laid back lifestyle and how great a place it is to raise kids. Whilst these things may have an element of truth how realistic are they? Usually when something sounds too good to be true it isn't, perhaps a little balance and honesty is called for. The days of the New Zealand Company's propaganda are long over but has anything changed since the 1840s?

"The immigrants' dissatisfaction was compounded by the misleading propaganda that the Company's London office had put out. They had been told that New Zealand was a fertile Eden; that economic prospects were unlimited for the hardworking man; and that almost every form of agriculture, manufacture, and commerce was possible, and would yield high returns. The Company had depicted the Maori race as eager for the white man's ways and merchandise. They had glossed over the difficulties of pioneering, and suppressed all negative reports of New Zealand...

By the mid 1840s, the four New Zealand Company settlements all had similar problems. The immigrants were angry. Many regretted their decision to come to this country and damned the Company for its misleading propaganda. They began leaving the settlements in droves, and by 1848, only eighty-five of the original 436 Wellington colonists remained."

This following extract is taken from Wikipedia - Pakeha Settlers

Campaign posters advertising New Zealand in England did give many settlers false hopes, manipulating their reasons. These posters often described New Zealand as an island paradise, complete with white sandy beaches and coconut trees. This heavenly image also did a lot to attract settlers to New Zealand, as it was such a welcome contrast to the rain and cold weather in England. Many settlers also believed that the paradise New Zealand was presented as would be good for their families' health as the warm weather as well as the small population in New Zealand could keep dangerous diseases that were rife in England to a minimum in New Zealand.

Another factor in attracting people to New Zealand was families who had already settled writing to their relatives back in Great Britain telling them what a wonderful place New Zealand was. Sometimes these letters were sincere and people truly had discovered a much better life in New Zealand and wanted their relatives to share in the spoils, but sometimes there were other motives. Pure loneliness and isolation could encourage people to write exaggerated letters to their relatives in the hope that they would make New Zealand sound so good that their extended families would come and join them thus providing them with some comfort. There were also settlers who were too afraid to admit to their families back home that they had made a mistake in coming to New Zealand and so, to save face they chose to exaggerate the positive sides of living in New Zealand and keep quiet about the negative factors. This writing of letters by settlers back to their families in the United Kingdom resulted in what’s called a chain reaction as more and more people were encouraged to come out and join their families."

These days we have the benefit of the internet. Emails, blog journals, on-line communities and forums are replacing the letters home. 'Campaign posters' still exist.

Our aim is to show you some of the present day issues. These include the problems that migrants are still having, the appalling poverty - especially as it impacts on children and young people, the high levels of crime, widespread drug abuse, the shocking numbers of deaths and injuries on the roads and those that arise from Adventure Tourism.

Please be sure to read this Welcome page in conjunction with the page "NZ Facts Of Life"

We hope you get something out of this blog and a desire to find out more for yourself.

For today's posts see: latest posts