Here we reproduce an article by the late Janet Wallace from the society’s Journal No 28, published in 2013. In doing so, we revisit the political and social circumstances around these perilous enterprises.
These themes are particularly in focus in Wychwoods villages, in this 150th year of the loss of the Cospatrick whilst undertaking a similar voyage.
Janet’s article examines local emigration to New Zealand in the bad agricultural times of the 1870s. She documents Milton families leaving for a new life on the S.S. Mongol.
Reports and diary entries show just how dangerous the voyage was for those leaving these shores. Many of those that arrived safely wrote home to say the risk of leaving was worthwhile. Life, though hard, was much better than it was in this country.
