Vision Scots could not resist

LIKEmostother movementsbound up so closelywiththe lives of ordinary people, theso-called Otago Free Church Settlement was theresultofmanydiverse and contributory forces rather than of onemainspringofinspiration, thechurch.

Thatitwas ostensibly,and practically up to acertain point, areligious settlementnurtured by themissionary zeal of the newand vigorous Free Church needsnoemphasis; andfrom the church it gained acertain moral andsocialstability which, in its formative yearswas very real ButEdwardGibbonWakefield, to,could claimagood deal of itsoriginalinspiration,for had it notbeenfor hisprinciples of careful selectionofasuitableand uniformprice forland, andofa systematicpeoplingofthe new settlement, Otagocould never have surmounted itspioneering difficulties as soon as it did.

Yetneither thereligious appeal of theFreeChurch, northe scientific impulseof theWakefield theory canclaim to have been thedominant moving force. For themajorityofthe pioneers,the social ills at home layatthe root of theirvoluntary transportation. Theymay have been ardent devotees of theWakefield theory though,indeed,thisisunlikely; they mayhavebeenzealous Free Churchmen—and this is very probable, but it wasprimarily in an endeavourtoameliorate their ownlot that Otago’s first immigrantsset outfrom Scotland late in 1847.

Had18thcentury conditions in ruralEngland andScotland remained static, theseemigrants might have spenttheir lives contentedlyin thedistrictof their birth.

Industrialismmeant urban squalorand class cleavages. This andthe failureof staple crops combined to produce asituation wherea fifthto aquarter of the totalpopulation was, within thebrief span of 40 years, crowdedtogetherin theClyde Valley;and no preparation was made to receive that influx save thehastybuilding, without plan or design, of exceedingly inadequateshelters.

In England, too, greatmultitudes of labour were beinghuddled into slumsand cellars. Andfrom most of thenew manufacturing centres from places like Paisley andGlasgow,Rochdale, Wigan, andCoventrycamethe familiar taleofunemployment, distress andstarvation.

In fact, in thewealthy England of 1831 —still therichest countryin Europe —10% of the wholepopulation were on relief, in spiteofthe dreadful conditions on whichitwas granted conditions whichassured for recipients theremoval of every vestigeofhumandignity and humanfreedom.

In Scotland thesystem was both better andworse.The Kirk Sessions attempted, as a rule, with adecenthumanity to keep bodyand soul together in the disabled;but theunemployed whowereunfortunate enough to be able-bodiedcould only starve untiltheyceasedtobesuch.

Againstthisbackground of gloom, thetheories of emigration attractively expounded by E G Wakefield andhis friends, and more particularly thespecifically Scottish scheme mooted by George Rennie,gavepromise of future prospectsand relief from present realities.

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THE Scot wascertainly too cautious to be sweptup suddenly by theemigration maniaofthe forties; and consequentlyinearlier colonial ventures he wasonlysparselyrepresented

Butaslivingconditionsremained unimproved at home,his thoughts turned increasinglytothe ‘‘NewEdinburgh’’ scheme plannedbyGeorge Rennie.This scheme embracedmuchofthe Wakefield theory of systematiccolonisation.

There wastobethe same delicatebalance betweenland, capital, andlabour; there wastobethe same carefulselection of emigrants, although,as yet, in 1842, there wasnosuggestionthatsuchselection shouldbebased on theFreeChurch principles of soundmoralityand religion; therewas thesameever-recurringtheme of thecompact andself-supportingunit representing acompletesegment of Scottish society

Before therealisationofhis scheme, Rennie insisted that thereshouldbe extensive preliminary preparationsby apickedbandofsurveyors,engineers, mechanics andlabourers

The town,the focalpoint of the settlementsite, wastobecarefully laid out, preservingall that wasgood in the oldEdinburgh; andprovisionmade for schoolsand churches.

Thisschemeasitwas originally envisagedwas to be broadly Scottish in characterand contemplated thecreation, somewherealong theeastcoast of the SouthIsland, of an extensive suburban farm,cropped andstocked with agood breedofcattlewhichwould meet,atleast some of themorepressingneedsofthe first settlers.

It wasthe scheme of atrueScotinits insistence on national exclusivenessand in itsregard for thechurchand for learning; it wasalsothe scheme of an earnest apostleofsystematicemigration in its studiedemphasisonbalances, selection andcompleteself-sufficiency.But it had as yetnoofficialconnectionwiththe Free Church nornegotiationswithits zealots, ThomasBurns andWilliamCargill

The Disruption of theScottishchurch in May1843, that dramaticclimax of 10 longyears of evangelical strife,involved infinitely more than thereligious scruples of afew ardentchurchmen —for religion wasfundamental to theScottishcharacter.

In alandwhere material things were not easily come by,where national divisions were notaccordingtoclass butwere