ABSTRACT
The input of Scots capital, especially in relation to the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, has received some attention. But it was the Scots-born politicians who rallied the forces of egalitarianism to win for New Zealand even more progressive land laws than those of Australia. It is generally assumed that most Scots who travelled to New Zealand went to the colony's most distinctively Scottish settlement Otago. This claim seems odd when it has been long known that Presbyterians heavily outnumbered Catholics among Scots immigrants who came to New Zealand and that most Highlanders went, in fact, to Nova Scotia, the USA and Australia. The other companies, particularly the notorious New Zealand Agricultural Company in which Scots investors and Scots-born politicians were involved, also tended to be seeking more rapid returns. Finally, in New Zealand the Scots adopted a relatively low profile in the trade union and labour movement, although they were represented in proportion to their numbers.
