Early European settlement in New Zealand was small, with only around 200 settlers by 1840, but increased rapidly after the Treaty of Waitangi established British sovereignty over New Zealand in 1840. The gold rushes of the 1860s attracted immigrants from outside Britain, particularly Americans and Chinese. The largest wave of immigration came in the 1870s, when over 289,000 people arrived in New Zealand over 15 years. Later waves saw immigrants from the Pacific Islands in the mid-20th century for work, and from Asia starting in the late 1990s, particularly from China, Hong Kong and Korea.

1. History of NZ immigration

3. To begin there was only 200 people of European decent and over 100,000 Maori.

4. Most of the early europeans to settle in NZ were interested in trading and many people came to hunt seals and whales

5. A lot also escaped from the convict country of Australia

7. This was due to the treaty being signed in 1840.

8. NZ was marketed as the England of the south.

9. Immigrants were promised huge amounts of land as land in the UK was becoming to find due to increasing population.

11. The numbers of American-born residents increased by 500 between 1861 and 1871.

12. A number of gold miners came from other European countries.

13. The most significant new group were the Chinese. There were 2,641 the greatest number for any non-British country. Virtually all were on the Otago goldfields

15. In 1871 the non-Māori population was just over a quarter of a million, over the next 15 years more than that number (289,026) flooded into the country.

16. It stayed the biggest increase until 2002

18. They were encouraged to come due to job opportunities

20. By 2006 China and Hong Kong and Korea together had contributed over 125,000 to the population

21. Many came to settle with their families and came to start new buisness.