Inquiry #1

Inquiry #1 Ancestry

Intro

In 1888 my Ancestor emigrated from Wales to New Zealand. He came to New Zealand in a large sailing boat with about 100 people on board including the crew and captain. He left England for a better life,for his Children and His Grandchildren.So this inquiry is me talking about why my Ancestor Chose New Zealand out of all the countries in the world, and the push and pull factors about New Zealand.So while this is my story, there are many families who have similar stories about their Ancestors and how they came to New Zealand, and these are the type of people to make up the traditional New Zealand population.

Push factor 1(crime rate)

One reason he decided to move to New Zealand was because the crime rate in England was way too high.The least amount of crimes done by the English in the 1800s was 4780 which was mostly made up from drunkenness,assault and robbery. But in New Zealand The first recorded crime was in 1842 on the 7 March, at Auckland, Maketū Wharetōtara (also known as Wiremu Kīngi Maketū), the son of a Bay of Island chief, Ruhe, became the first person to be executed by hanging in New Zealand. He had been found guilty of murdering two adults and three children at Motuarohia in November 1841. Following the treaty of waitangi in 1845 and the immigrant population into New Zealand increased, so did the New Zealand crime rate.

Push factor 2(Not safe living/Jack the Ripper)

When Herbert Mason left Wales, it was around the time Jack the Ripper was terrorizing England with all the murders he committed and what he did with the bodies after he killed them. He easily striked fear though London and even all of England and wales. So when he killed Polly Nichols most of Wales and England though there would be Copycat killers running all around the contrary, so this was a huge push factor for Herbert Mason to come to New Zealand.

Discussion of push factors

So Herbert had heard of New Zealand and all of the land he could own,but then there were the problems of moving there,there were the Maori who were cannibals and savages to the English. But then there was all the crime,robbery,assault and serial killers in England. And like I said before most of the people in England and Wales thought there might be copycat killers who might be inspired by Jack the Ripper's actions.So there was New Zealand's natives called Maoris,who eat other humans,And England with Jack the ripper,robbers and mudrers.So after He thought about all of the risks in England and New Zealand, he finally decided to Move to New Zealand for a new life away from all the murders and crime in England.

Pull factor 1(higher wages)

In 1898,one of the main reasons Herbert moved to New Zealand for a new way of living,In New Zealand Herbert became a logger.He got paid way higher wages than he did in England, probably because he owned a small farm unlike the rich who owned big farms and had triple the livestock as he did.He also had to deal with all the troubles that came with being a not very wealthy farmer like low crop prices, high interest rates, high transportation costs, and growing debt.

Pull factor 2(Affordable land ownership)

Land was a very important thing in England,Because the more land you had the more crops you could grow,and the more crops meant more money you could make selling them. So when Herbert heard of New Zealand he thought it would be like paradise compared to his small farm and his small amount of livestock. When he arrived, he ended up becoming a logger instead of a farmer and he got paid double the amount he did for being a farmer in England.

Discussion of pull factors

So I’ve compared the cost for running a farm in England compared to New Zealand,and he would have easily gone to New Zealand. But like I said before there were the Maori who could take all his crops,belongings and maybe his life. But there were no low crop prices and the transportation cost wasn't nearly as high as the ones in England. So Herbert made that decision to move to New Zealand with the rewards being he could have his own farm,a nice house and afford to feed and support his family comfortably.So even though there was the risk of being eaten by the Maori, it was a risk he was willing to take.

Conclusion

So he arrived in Auckland in 1889, at the age of 27,then he got a job in the Waipoua forest as a logger in the northland region. And he met his future wife there, who was called Lilly Mary White and she was 26 when she arrived in Christchurch and started working in a milking factory. And as for Herbert, instead of getting eaten by the Maori, he became good friends with them. They had five Children the last one being my grandma who was called gwetha.

Bibliography

My dad was my main soruce of information