The Otago Association was founded in 1845 by adherents of the
Free Church of Scotland with the purpose of establishing a colony of like-minded
Scots in
Otago
Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...
in the
South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...
of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
, chiefly at
Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...
.
In addition to religion, the economy was also a motivator in the association's foundation and operations. The
Highland Clearances
The Highland Clearances ( gd, Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860.
The first phase result ...
,
crop failures, and population pressures in industrialised urban centres all created conditions that, by the mid-nineteenth century, made emigration seem attractive to many poorer Scots.
John McGlashan was the association's secretary in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, Scotland, from 1847. He would himself emigrate in 1853.
The first two settler ships, ''
John Wickliffe'' and ''
Philip Laing
''Philip Laing'' is a 19th-century sailing ship best known as the second immigrant ship to arrive in Dunedin, New Zealand, on 15 April 1848. Chartered by the New Zealand Company for this voyage the ship was carrying Scottish settlers, under the c ...
'', under the command of
William Cargill, sailed from Britain in late 1847 and arrived at what is now
Port Chalmers on 23 March and 15 April 1848, respectively. About 12,000 immigrants arrived in Dunedin within a decade.
See also
*
Canterbury Association
*
New Zealand Company
The New Zealand Company, chartered in the United Kingdom, was a company that existed in the first half of the 19th century on a business model focused on the systematic colonisation of New Zealand. The company was formed to carry out the principl ...
References
Organizations established in 1845
Immigration to New Zealand
History of Otago
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