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Story: King Country region

Indian immigrants, 1920s

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Indian immigrants, 1920s

The three Sikh men in this photograph worked on farms in Ōtūnui, a rural district west of Taumarunui, in the 1920s. Clearance of the native forests for farms provided employment opportunities for Indian migrants such as these men during the First World War and the 1920s. During the 1920s the King Country had the largest population of migrants from the Punjab region of India in New Zealand.

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Abundant Past, White family Collection

Reference: 15292

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How to cite this page

Kerryn Pollock, King Country region – Population and society, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/34857/indian-immigrants-1920s (accessed 3 June 2026).

Story by Kerryn Pollock, published 6 December 2011, updated 1 March 2015.