Cornwall to New Zealand

[Katie123]

Hi All
My greatx3 grandparents Joseph Henry and Emma Phillips travelled from Cornwall (St Ives) to New Zealand in 1878 - why? How would I find records of this e.g. passport applications etc, and would be there be any details as to why they left (I'm thinking of the records found about Kim Cattrall's gdad in WDYTYA!)
Any help appreciated

[scanning]

Much time has passed, but........

Immigrants by the ship May Queen
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=THA18781002.2.23&srpos=11&e=01-01-1878-01-01-1879--10--11----0Joseph+Phillips-ARTICLE%2cILLUSTRATION-
Thames Advertiser, Volume XI, Issue 3131, 2 October 1878, Page 3
The following are the names of immigrants by the above vessel, which sailed from Plymouth for Auckland on July 20. She has on board 250 souls, equal to 215 1/2 statute adults, of whom 167 are English, 81 Irish, 1 Scotch, and one Australian; of which the following is the summary:-30 married couples, 73 single men, 57 single women, 30 boys, 21 girls, and 9 infants.

Arrival of the May Queen from London with 250 immigrants
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=AS18781019.2.3.4&srpos=28&e=01-01-1878-01-01-1879--10--21----0Joseph+Phillips-ARTICLE%2cILLUSTRATION-
Auckland Star, Volume IX, Issue 2654, 19 October 1878, Page 2
Description of voyage.

"New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839-1973," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FST6-KYS : accessed 16 May 2016), Joseph Phillips, 19 Oct 1878; citing May Queen, Ship, Arrival Port Auckland, National Archives, Wellington; FHL microfilm 004411913.
John and Mary Phillips; Joseph and Emma Phillips
John and Mary are indicated as being 21. Joseph is indicated as being 24 and Emma 20. All are from Cornwall with John and Joseph noted as agricultural labourers.

May prove of some help. It is likely that they were NZ Government assisted immigrants.

[trish1120]

Something to read;

The south-west (including Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire) provided migrants when there was a reduction of copper and tin mining in the area. A depression in the 1840s was followed by a long-term decline from the 1860s, as alternative supplies came in from the New World.

New Zealand was a likely choice for people from these three key regions because the ships bound for New Zealand departed from London or from Plymouth in Devon, which were reasonably close to the south-east and south-west. By contrast, people in the north who wanted to leave England would first go to Liverpool, where the obvious choice was to board ships for the 10-day trip across the Atlantic to Canada or the USA. This was cheaper and more convenient than heading south to find a ship for the 100-day voyage to New Zealand.

Assisted migration

About half of 19th-century English immigrants to New Zealand came on assisted passages. Those who offered assistance tended to recruit especially in the south-east and south-west, where they expected to find the kinds of people – farm labourers and craft workers – who were wanted in New Zealand. New Zealand Company agents were strongly concentrated in these areas, and there was a close correlation between the location of the agents and the origin of company migrants. Company recruiting established patterns of migration, and through the process of chain migration – where letters from friends and relatives who had already settled in New Zealand encouraged emigration – later migrants were also attracted from these areas. The pattern was further reinforced by the continued interest in these areas from provincial recruiting agents, and then after 1871 from New Zealand government agents.

Many English agricultural labourers who arrived in New Zealand between 1871 and 1890 were drawn from Wychwood Forest in Oxfordshire, the Northern Wolds of Lincolnshire, the rural parishes of east Kent, and the mining parishes of west Cornwall.****


http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/english/page-4

Trish