Here is another in a series of extracts from our many Oral History audio files.
Our archive contains many recordings of talks given to the society in the 1980s and 1990s
In this extract, the late Duncan Waugh, in his 14th May 1991 talk on emigration to New Zealand , outlined the main reasons for the exodus.
Population expansion was one of the reasons.
Listen to the clip here:
Transcript
But behind all these (reasons causing emigration) was one overriding factor that’s usually politely called “demographic”.
I don’t know if you have heard that entertaining anecdote about the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, a famous Victorian parson. The one that wrote Onward Christian Soldiers and also saved from oblivion the song about Widdecombe Fair.
Well he was a conscientious, energetic parson down on the west side of Dartmoor. And he was at a, having, presiding over a children’s party one afternoon and he saw a pretty little girl sort of staring at him a bit fixedly and so he bent down benignly and said, “Good afternoon my dear and whose little girl are you?”
And she burst into tears and said, “I’m yours Papa” …..
The recording of the full talk is here >>>
