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Story: Immigration regulation

British and Irish welcome

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British and Irish welcome

Between the two world wars, the vast majority of immigrants came from the United Kingdom and Ireland. To make it more certain that New Zealand would remain overwhelmingly British, schemes were introduced to help British people who might not otherwise have been able to emigrate. This group of young British men arrived in New Zealand in the late 1920s under a scheme run by the Salvation Army.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP-1038-1/2-G

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

Ann Beaglehole, Immigration regulation – 1914–1945: restrictions on non-British immigration, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/1373/british-and-irish-welcome (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Ann Beaglehole, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 August 2015.