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Kōrero: Women and men

Come on over

Image
Come on over

Attempts to attract women to colonial New Zealand began early. In this 1839 poster advertising the first sailing of a shipload of Scottish settlers, single women are offered free passage:

[The] Bengal Merchant […] will positively sail from Post-Glasgow for New Zealand, with the first body of settlers from Scotland, on Friday, Oct. 25.

Single women, going out as Servants to Cabin Passengers, or in charge of Married Emigrants, will receive a Free Passage on board of this Ship.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: Eph-C-IMMIGRATION-1839-01

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Charlotte Macdonald, Women and men – Colonial beginnings: 1840s–1880s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/ephemera/29206/come-on-over (accessed 25 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Charlotte Macdonald, i tāngia i te 30 March 2011, updated 1 August 2017.

Comments

Dean Reid
24 September 2020
My great great grandparents were on this ship with their infant daughter who died on route to Petone