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Story: History of immigration

New Zealand Company propaganda

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New Zealand Company propaganda

The New Zealand Company tried to attract settlers from Britain by publishing romanticised images of New Zealand. A major source of this propaganda was Edward Jerningham Wakefield’s book, Adventure in New Zealand, published in London in 1845. It contained many coloured lithographs. This one, from a drawing by William Mein Smith, the first New Zealand Company surveyor-general, shows the company settlement of Petre (Whanganui) in September 1841.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: PUBL-0011-05

by William Mein Smith

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.

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How to cite this page

Jock Phillips, History of immigration – British immigration and the New Zealand Company, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/2093/new-zealand-company-propaganda (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Jock Phillips, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 August 2015.