IN   terms    of   immigration   controls    the    1920    Immigration Restriction   Amendment Act  marks a point of critical importance and its obvious  significance  plainly invites us  to  interpret Asian immigration in the same way.    This has in  fact  been done.    The period leading up to 1920  has been  seen as a 'pioneering' phase during which young males  worked   in  groups,  living apart from the host population in tents  and crude huts.    The   years between 1920 and   1945 are identified  as a second   phase, a period which set the  direction  for   future   occupational   patterns.    Gujaratis moved from laboring jobs to market-gardening and  greengrocery retail.  Punjabis  to    dairy-farming.    The   third    phase, still  in progress,  was also initiated   by  government  action.    A relaxing of official  policy meant  that family  units could be significantly strengthened.    This served   to   confirm the  trend set by the inter-war period¹

Although the developments represented by this interpretation certainly occurred in the case of the Punjabis, the first two phases thus identified do not really correspond to the periods separated by the passing of the 1920 Act The 'pioneering' or 'sojourner' phase extended well into the 1930s, and indeed for most Punjabis it extended into the 1950s. Throughout the first half of the present century a majority of the Punjabi immi­grants in New Zealand continued to work as rural labourers, particularly as members of scrub-cutting gangs. It is true that the dairy-farming objective does begin to emerge during the inter-war years and it is likewise true that the post-war change in official policy significantly encouraged this ambition. In itself, however,  the  1920  Act   merely  stemmed  a   small   stream   by

ensuring that all Indian workers would thereafter come direct from India as the sons (actual or adopted) of earlier immigrants. It effectively restricted the number of Punjabi immigrants without immediately altering their dominant objective or their typical work patterns. Prior to 1920 most of the Punjabis who entered New Zealand planned to return home after several years of wage-earning labour, This intention was not affected by the 1920 Act.

Within the terms of this typical intention a more detailed pattern of phases can be discerned. First came a hawking phase, a period which began in the early 1890s and extended ten or fifteen years into the twentieth century. This was the period when a few turbaned strangers appeared on the New Zealand roads peddling cloth, chutney, herbs or semi-precious stones, and strengthening European fears of an Asian 'tide'. Although their distinctive appearance made them highly conspicuous the actual number of Indians present in New Zealand during this first phase was obviously very small. I have been able to trace ten Punjabis who arrived in New Zealand prior to 1910 (nine men and one woman). They were followed in or about 1910 by three more, all of them coal-miners on the west coast of the South Island.

The coal-miners can be regarded as a digression rather than as a second phase. Only four men were involved, all of them Malwais. Meanwhile the principal phase had begun. While a tiny handful of hawkers continued to work the country roads and the four miners dug coal in Westland a different kind of Punjabi immigrant began to arrive. The earlier arrivals had been mainly Malwais or Majhails. This second phase was to be overwhelmingly Doabi. It began shortly before World War I (probably in 1912) and it established the pattern of employment which was to predominate until the 1950s. The pattern was one which increasingly distinguished the Punjabi from the Gujarati in terms of district and occupational preferences; and it was also during this period that the Gujaratis drew well ahead of the Punjabis numerically. By the time the 1920 Act was passed Gujarati numbers were far greater than those of  the

Punjabis. With subsequent immigration largely limited to the families of earlier arrivals the same differential proportion has been maintained ever since.

This second phase was for the Punjabis the period of rural labour as mobile wage-earners. It was a comparatively lengthy phase, lasting for at least thirty-five years if we include the lull during World War II. Within it further distinctions can be drawn. As we shall see, it can be divided in terms of the intended destinations of the Punjabis who ' eventually found their way to New Zealand; and it can also be divided in terms of the specific jobs which they undertook as agricultural labourers. The first division distinguishes those who travelled via Fiji from later arrivals who came direct to New Zealand. The second traces a development from flax-cutting through drain-digging to manuka clearance and eventually to gorse-cutting. Associated with this occupational development there was also a progressive move southwards through the centre of the North Island and eventually across to its eastern districts.

The third of the general phases reverses this southward drift, drawing many of the Punjabis back to the Waikato. This was the dairy-farming phase. Three dairy-farms were purchased or otherwise acquired by Punjabis during the four or five years immediately following World War I, but all three failed and were soon sold. The first successful farms were two which were bought in 1927, or perhaps a little earlier in one case. These two farms, both of them near Te Aroha in the eastern Waikato, mark the effective beginning of the dairy-farming phase. It was, however, to be a very slow process, at least until the depression of the 1930s began to ease. Late in that decade a few more farms were purchased, but any possibility of a significant development was soon arrested by the beginning of World War II and the return of many Punjabis to their home-land. The period of real development for Punjabi dairy-farming belongs to the years following World War II, particularly to the 1950s and 1960s.

A final phase may be briefly noted, one which lies beyond the scope of this study.   Although dairy-farming remained the

prime objective for the post-war Punjabi community in New Zealand several were to find their hopes frustrated by a rapid acceleration in land prices during the 1960s and 1970s, accom­panied by increasing difficulty in obtaining loan finance. This soon removed the goal from the realm of reasonable possibility, except for those families which had already established a base in the industry. Those who had not yet purchased a first farm were compelled to look elsewhere as scrub-cutting lost its appeal. The usual choice for such men proved to be the factories of southern Auckland, particularly in and around the suburb of Otahuhu. Factory labour was still seen by many of them as the means to a dairy farm, and in this sense it can be regarded as an extension of the land-clearance or scrub-cutting phase. In practice, however, few from this generation have achieved the objective during recent years. A more popular choice has, of necessity, been the purchase of small urban properties in Auckland. The current phase is thus one which combines factory labour with the role of urban landlord or small shopkeeper. 

No one knows who was the first Indian to enter New Zealand. The first to achieve public notice was the celebrated 'Black Peter', a Mr Edward Peter who appeared on the Otago goldfields shortly after disembarking in 1853-² It is, however, possible that seamen or servants from India may have preceded him. Shortly after Edward Peter arrived he was followed in 1854 or 1855 by a retinue of seventeen servants brought to the Canterbury settlement from India by Sir Johan Cracoft Wilson of the Bengal Civil Service.³ A few other Englishmen who had served in India evidently followed Wilson's example in a less conspicuous manner and the small scattering of personal servants which resulted could perhaps be regarded as the first Indian community in New Zealand. Several of the Wilson retinue deserted their master when they discovered that they could earn better wages elsewhere. Most of them, the loyal and  the deserters  alike, are said to have married Maori wives.⁴

If indeed they can be regarded as a community it was a transient one, obscure while it existed and eventually merging in the society which surrounded it.

Servants and visiting seamen provide one of the reasons why the early census returns in New Zealand offer such limited help in tracing the beginnings of a permanent Indian community in New Zealand. Another reason is the patchy and unreliable nature of the Indian returns during the years prior to 1921. The inadequacy of these returns means that we must rely on oral sources as much for the early hawking period as for the later years which come within the memories of several surviving informants. The result, needless to say, is sketchy and uncertain. It is, however, possible to identify the principal participants and determine a general pattern.

The first Indians to appear in census returns were the six recorded in the 1881 Census. Taher briefly notes a claim that these six were all Punjabis.
            According to an old Indian resident of Pukekohe, the six Indians recorded in the 1881 Census
            were Punjabis and North Indians who, destined for Fiji, had stayed here instead, for a few years.⁵ 

The report is most unlikely to be true. It does not match Gillion's claim that the first Punjabi 'free' immigrants reached Fiji in 1904⁶ and it leaves the domestic servants in New Zealand unrecorded. The first of these is admittedly an uncertain argument, but the second carries some weight. It seems that Taher's unnamed informant was communicating an unreliable tradition.

The tradition is one which I have never encountered in my own enquiries. Indeed, for several months I encountered very little of substance which related to the pre-1914 years. Memories seemed to go no further than a North Island hawker called Harnam Singh Majhail. The situation was, however, trans­formed when I met Mrs Santa Singh of Blockhouse Bay, Auckland, in December 1975. Mrs Santa Singh proved to be a particularly    helpful   informant for two   reasons.   One was

that she was the widow of an immigrant from Jandiala in the Manjki region who entered New Zealand in 1920. This, however concerned a later period. What made her reports particularly valuable was the fact that her father was one of the first two identifiable Punjabis to enter New Zealand. She herself was born in Wanganui in 1900 and she has spent her entire life in New Zealand.

Mrs Santa Singh's father was Phuman Singh, a Gill Jat from the large village of Chirak, eight kilometres south of Moga. Chirak was the principal settlement within a tiny enclave belong­ing to the princely state of Kalsia. Phuman Singh's elder brother, Bir Singh, had gone to Australia (presumably during the 1880s) and an increasingly anxious family had subsequently despatched Phuman Singh to bring him home. The two brothers duly met in Australia but instead of returning to the Punjab they decided to cross the Tasman to New  Zealand.

The first date which Mrs Santa Singh could fix in her father's career was 1897, the year in which he married and acquired sole owner-ship of a confectionery business in Wanganui. Before that happened Phuman Singh must have spent several years in New Zealand. Having parted company with Bir Singh he lived for some time in Auckland where he learnt to make sweets from a Muslim confectioner. He then moved to Wellington where he became a hawker, carrying his sweets, chutnies and curries around the city streets in a suitcase. During this period he resided in a boarding-house where he met the English nurse who was to be­come his wife. After his marriage he moved to Wanganui where he established a confectionery business in partnership with a Muslim known as Charlie Abraham. Eventually he bought out his partner on 11 July 1897.

A career such as this could scarcely be crammed into two or three years and the date of Phuman Singh's arrival in New Zealand with Bir Singh must accordingly be pushed back at least to the early 1890s. It is, I suggest, reasonable to assume that the two brothers arrived in circa 1890. This does not necessarily mean, of course, that they were the first Punjabis to reach New Zealand,  nor even the first to settle in the country.    A possible

candidate is the unnamed Muslim of Aukland who taught Phuman Singh the art of making confectionery soon after he arrived. There is also Charlie Abraham of Wanganui. The two Gill brothers from Chirak are nevertheless the first whom we can clearly identify. For practical purposes the history of Punjabi settlement in New Zealand dates from their arrival.

According to Mrs Santa Singh her father was not isolated from other Punjabis during the years which he spent in Wanganui up to his departure for New Plymouth in 1915. She recalls her mother's descriptions of Punjabis visiting their home, most of them evidently hawkers.

Quite a number seemed to pass through Wanganui before and after my parents were married. One gave my mother a bolt of pure silk of which her wedding gown was made. They were mostly hawkers I should think and it would be before 1900 or just after.....   They would visit my father on Sundays and have a religious service there.⁷

The gift of silk would obviously have been before 1898 as that was the year when the first of Phuman Singh's four children was born. A report recollected from childhood may well produce heightened effects and 'quite a number' may exaggerate the actual number of Punjabis who visited Phuman Singh and his wife Margaret. There is, however, no reason to doubt the essential veracity of the report and we may safely conclude that there were at least a few Punjabis within reach of Wanganui by the turn of the century.

In addition to her mother's reports Mrs Santa Singh recollects actually seeing some of these visitors. One small group which she distinctly remembers consisted of four Punjabis who tried to hawk potatoes in Wanganui, moving on when their small enterprise met with failure. Two individuals whom she knew well were Ganda Singh and his wife, a recollection which is particularly clear as Ganda Singh was employed by her father in the confectionery business. Like his employer Ganda Singh was a Malwai. He entered New Zealand from Australia in circa 1899 and after re­turning to the Punjab to marry he returned with his wife in circa

1907. It was following his return that he worked for Phuman Singh in Wanganui. The details which Mrs Santa Singh was able to supply from her childhood recollections were subsequently confirmed by Ganda Singh's son, Varyam (Vram) Singh, who was born in Wanganui in 1908.⁸

With the assistance of Mrs Santa Singh, Mr Varyam Singh, Mr Hans Raj Kapoor, and other informants the list of early Panjabi immigrants given on the following page has been compiled.⁹ The list comprises fourteen men and one woman.

Two qualifications should be attached to this list. The first is that it concerns only the early period of Punjabi immigration (the years up to 1912). This qualification particularly concerns the 'Occupation' column where the entries for each individual apply only to the early period. The Kapoor brothers were later to become successful sawmillers and shopkeepers, and Munshi Ram acquired a dairy farm during the early 1920s. Strictly speaking Maya Das does not belong to the period, having arrived after 1912. He has, however, been included as he came from Australia soon after 1912 and was clearly a very different kind of migrant from the Punjabis who entered New Zealand from Fiji during the period which begins in 1912. Maya Das was actually a teacher from the Manjki area whose reason for visit­ing Australia and New Zealand was evidently to collect funds for his school in Pharwala village.¹⁰

The second qualification to be attached to the list is that it cannot pretend to be complete. Mrs Santa Singh's recollec­tions may have been dimmed by distance, but it would never theless be difficult the reconcile this short list with the memories she retains of Punjabis visiting her father in Wanganui. Her recollections, moreover, were confined to a very small part of New Zealand. There may well have been more hawkers from India travelling the roads further north. European fears of a turbaned influx of migrant hawkers must certainly reflect a larger number than those listed above, and if the hawkers who caused such alarm were indeed turbaned there is a reasonable chance that several of them were Punjabis. It is a very obscure picture which survives.   We can neither affirm that the European anxieties

of the late 1890s necessarily point to significant numbers of Punjabi immigrants, nor can we claim that our short list will be complete.

It is, however, possible to deduce an obvious pattern from the list. Several features are immediately apparent. First, a substantial majority of these early immigrants were Jat Sikhs. This predominance has continued ever since. Secondly, half (or almost half) of the immigrants were Malwais. This feature was not to be sustained during the period which began in 1912. Whereas Malwais dominate the early period and Majhails are prominent, the later period was to be overwhelmingly Doabi. The two periods are also distinguished by the different routes followed by immigrants entering New Zealand. As we have already noted the later migrants were typically Doabis who had spent some time in Fiji before moving on to New Zealand. Their predecessors include several who had previously worked in Australia and only one who may possibly have been in Fiji.¹¹

Finally, there is an obvious occupational pattern in that half of the men worked as hawkers during their early years in New Zealand. (Harnam Singh Majhail remained a hawker throughout his lengthy career in New Zealand.) The association with hawking is further strengthened by the fact that Ganda Singh had worked as a hawker for several years in Australia and it is quite possible that he continued in the same occupation for several years after reaching New Zealand. It is also possible that Munshi Ram and Sahib Singh may have been hawkers.

As we have already observed, Phuman Singh evidently confined his hawking activities to Wellington city, walking its streets with a suitcase containing sweets, chutnies and curries.¹² His move to the confectionery business was a natural development, one which added production to vending. After he had established his little sweet-factories he continued to sell their products in the surrounding countryside, particularly during the years which he spent in Palmerston North. For those who worked the country roads the inevitable form of transport was horseback, possibly with a second horse to carry most of the wares.   Bir Singh (who

had also hawked in Australia before coming to New Zealand) specialised in herbs, proffering his services as a herbalist in the central North Island area.¹³ Indar Singh is said to have hawked clothing and soft goods around the Waikato, concentrating his efforts on Maori huis (tribal gatherings) and European fairs.¹⁴ Harnam Singh also hawked cloth and garments ¹⁵ Khushi Ram Kapoor, later to be joined by his brother Hans Raj, specialised in greenstone products, offering them for sale in the King Country and Wanganui areas.¹⁶

In addition to hawking one other occupation stands out, a form of employment which we noted above as a digression from the main phase. Ganda Singh links the two, for after his years of hawking and confectionery he moved to Runanga on the west coast of the South Island in 1910 or 1911 and there secured work with a coal-mining company.¹⁷ It is possible that he made the move in conjunction with one or more of the other three Punjabis who decided to seek work in the Westland coal mines. Sunder Singh was evidently a close friend of Ganda Singh,¹⁸ and as Sunder Singh had joined the other two Punjabi miners to form a close-knit working association it is safe to assume that all four knew each other well. Their life-styles were, however, very different. Ganda Singh lived a settled existence as a family man with his wife, a young nephew, and two small children of his own. Reports received from elderly Runanga residents plainly indicate that the Punjabi family earned for itself an accepted place within the little township.¹⁹ The three mates were, in contrast, single men who lived a rough life and left an enduring reputation for hard drinking.²⁰

These four men are the only identifiable Punjabis who worked in the South Island prior to World War II. There is a press reference to five Indians employed as railway construction labourers near Christchurch in 1920²¹ and one of my informants (who was unaware of the press report) mentioned that some of the early Punjabis worked for a time on railway construction in the South Island.²² It is, however, unlikely that the five labourers near Christchurch were Punjabis, for 1920 comes within the recollection of several of my informants and no one else seems

to have been aware of Punjabi railway workers. If there were Punjabis in South Island railway construction the period was probably earlier and their names have now been lost.

Shortly after the four Malwais began to mine coal in the South Island the major phase began in the north. The earliest representative of this phase whom I have been able to identify positively is Genda Singh, a Saini Sikh from the village of Gobindpur in Nawanshahr tahsil. According to his son, Mr. Chanan Singh of Hamilton, Genda Singh migrated to Fiji in 1910. While working there he attended a cram school run by a clergyman in Suva in order to learn the minimal English required for the New Zealand entry form. His early success in this respect may have been partly due to the fact that he was already thoroughly literate in Gurmukhi, having been educated in a gurdwara before leaving the Punjab. Having duly acquired the necessary skill at the padre's cram school he sailed for Auck­land in 1912.²³

Although Genda Singh was not necessarily the first Punjabi to enter New Zealand from Fiji it is unlikely that he would have had many predecessors. He thus appears at the very beginning of the phase which was to bring the bulk of New Zealand's Punjabis to its shores. This was to be the period of rural labour as flax-workers, ditch-diggers and scrub-cutters. 1912-18 was also to be the period when practically every Punjabi immigrant to enter New Zealand did so from Fiji. As far as I am aware the only exception to this latter rule was Kahan Singh, a Jat from Raipur Dabba village in Nawanshahr tahsil. Before pro­ceeding overseas Kahan Singh had been a school teacher and as such had learned some English. When the group with which he was travelling to Fiji called en route at Auckland in 1914 he heard of the entry requirement and having asked for a form he comple­ted it in the approved manner. This enabled him to remain in New Zealand, leaving his jahazi mates to continue their journey without him.²⁴

            Kahan Singh was a rare exception. Genda Singh was much closer to the rule, typifying the migrants of the period 1912-18 in several important respects. His home village lay within the Dhak region; he migrated first to Fiji; he learnt some English there; and having moved on to New Zealand he accepted employment as a flax-worker and scrub-cutter. In only one important respect was he untypical of the immigrants who entered New Zealand during this (and other) periods. He was a Saini by caste, not a Jat.²⁵ The general consistency of this pattern is immediately evident from the following tables.

Table 1
Regional origins of Punjabi immigrants entering
New Zealand 1912-1921

Notes:

1.    All the immigrants listed as 'Uncertain' probably arrived during the 1912-18 period.

2.     Immigrants from Hoshiarpur tahsil came from a group of villages south and south-east of 

Hoshiarpur city(Purhi-ran, Kahri, Meghowal, Harakhowal, Marnaian Kalan, Marnaian Khurd, and Bohan). The migrants from these villages generally identified with those from the Mahilpur area and are commonly regarded as members of the Garhshankar group.

3.     During the British period Phagwara town with its surrounding villages was an enclave 

belonging to the princely state of Kapurthala. (It is now a small tahsil.) It has been bracketed with Jullundur tahsil because the two villages within its bounds which produced New Zealand migrants (Maheru and Khajurla) form a cluster with two of the three villages in adjacent Jullundur tahsil. This category also includes the village of Kala Sangha situated within Kapurthala state proper, a short distance from the south-western boundary of Jullundur tahsil.

4.     Jullundur City includes Basti Shekhan, a village on the south-western side of the city which has 

       now been absorbed into the city.

5.    The Malwa figures include two migrants from villages which are probably within modern

      Haryana.

6.    None of the tables for the 1912-21 period includes either Hans Raj Kapoor (arr. 1912) or Maya

Das (arr. 1913/14). Both have already been included in the list of earlier Punjabi immigrants. (See p. 56) Hans Raj Kapoor is a Khatri who came direct from Jullundur City. Maya Das was a Brahman who came from Phillaur tahsil via Australia.

7.    The tables for 1912-21 include two women One was married to a Jullundur City man who had

arrived before 1912 (Khushi Ram Kapoor) and one accompanied her Majha husband (Dr. Baldev  Singh Share) when he arrived for the first time in 1920. Hakim Singh of Karnana also brought his wife, Fahiman, to New Zealand during this period. Fahiman, however, was not a Punjabi.

   She was an indentured woman (probably from  Bengal) whom Hakim  Singh had married in Fiji.²⁶ 

Table  2
Caste analysis of Punjabi immigrants entering New Zealand
1912-21

The figures given in these and subsequent tables for the period 1912-21 are derived from interviews and correspondence with survivors from the period which they cover, supplemented where possible by passenger arrivals noted in Auckland shipping lists.²⁷ As with the list of earlier immigrants these tables cannot claim to be definitive, and it is possible that a thorough combing of all available shipping lists might turn up a few more. I am, however, satisfied that any such exercise would produce very few. The shipping lists which were sampled revealed no recogni-sably Punjabi names which had not already been reported in interviews or letters. Any which may have escaped notice would presumably be either Hindus or Muslims, for their names would not be distinctively Punjabi and their presence is less likely to

have been remembered by my predominantly Sikh informants. Hindus and Muslims constitute, however, a very small proportion of the Punjabi total and if any have been missed their number must be tiny indeed. The total number of Indians reported in the 1921 Census also supports the claim that few Punjabis can have been ommitted from the analysis presented in the three tables- The total was 618.²⁸ If one assumes a significantly larger proportion of Punjabis than the 212 indicated above it will be very difficult to accommodate the proportion which would be needed for the Gujaratis in order to give them the nine-tenths majority which later figures eventually reveal.

This assumes, of course, that all the Punjabis who entered New Zealand during the period 1912-21 were still in the country in 1921- My data strongly supports the likelihood that there would have been at least 200 Punjabis in New Zealand in. 1921. Of the 213 who appear in the above tables 202 were certainly in New Zealand in 1921 or at some subsequent time.²⁹ Four had died during the influenza epidemic of 1918³⁰ and only one can be identified as a definite permanent departure prior to 1921. Ten are unknown, all of them probably in the country during 1921 or at some other stage during the early 1920s. Of the 197 who definitely had post-1921 careers in New Zealand, together with the ten who probably did so, there would presumably have been a few who were absent during 1921. The reports which I have received suggest that their number would have been very small. There are, moreover, thirteen from the earlier 1890-1912 list who must be added to those who were in New Zealand during the 1920s, at least nine of whom were certainly present during 1921. On the basis of these figures it seems safe to conclude that the number of Punjabis actually in New Zealand at the time of the 1921 Census would have been a figure very close to 200.

The pattern which the tables reveal is a clear one. From 1912 onwards very few immigrants entered New Zealand from the Malwa or Majha areas of the Punjab. At least 90 per cent (and probably more) of those who entered during the 1912-21 period came from eastern Doaba. Within the eastern Doaba total the largest  contribution is  supplied  by Nawanshahr tahsil, a figure

which approaches 50 per cent if in place of Nawanshahr tahsil we aggregate all who came from the Dhak region. If the deba­table Dhak/Manjki fringe is transferred from Phillaur tahsil and incorporated within the Dhak aggregate the total actually passes 50 per cent.³¹ In terms of caste there is the predictable Jat majority (62 per cent), a feature which characterises the entire area apart from the one urban area which produced emigrants (Jullundur City) The Chamars are a clear second, but without the even spread of the Jats.³² Although there are Chamars from most of the rural areas represented in the table there is an evident concentration from the Dhak and the adjacent Sirowal (Mahilpur) regions. The Chamar concentration is, in fact, even more pronounced than the table indicates. Five of the Nawanshahr tahsil Chamars are from a single village (Raipur Dabba) and all Five of those from the Mahilpur area emigrated from Khera village.

Although this caste representation may seem surprising at first sight it is in fact entirely predictable. The figures reflect both the numerical dominance of the Jats in rural Doaba and the unusually high proportion of Chamars in the same area.³³ They also bear a marked resemblance to the caste profile which Kessinger has drawn for Villayatpur. The years 1910 and 1922 are represented as follows in Kessinger's findings (percentages of working males).³⁴

The Muslim figures included in tables 2 and 3 have not been classified in terms of caste. Their detailed analysis is as follows.

Table 4
Regional origins of Punjabi Muslim immigrants analysed in terms of caste (all males)

It must be acknowledged that these figures do not mean very much. The total number of Punjabi Muslim immigrants is too small to be significant and within this small total the largest item is the 'Unknown' category. This later feature reflects the fact that my informants were predominantly Sikh and Hindu. Well informed concerning their co-religionists' caste identities, they were understandably much more hesitant when commenting on the Muslims.³⁵

The Khatris are also a very small group, though one that sustains a certain consistency and performs in accordance with traditional expectations. The figures suggest that the Khatris were principally from urban origins (particularly when we add the two Khatris included in the 1890-1912 list) and it is evident from informants' reports that their appearance in New Zealand was largely independent of the migration chain from rural eastern Doaba. The only possible exception to this rule appears to be Ram Lal of Darapur village in Phillaur tahsil Ram Lai was also the only exception to the rule that Khatris in New Zealand chose business and shopkeeping in preference to rural labour. The three Khatri brothers from Basti Shekhan on the outskirts of Jullundur City (Khushi Ram Kapoor, Hans Raj Kapoor, and Jagat Ram Kapoor) became successful saw-millers and proprietors of country stores. Devi Das and Labhu Mal, who arrived from Fiji in 1920, opened a store at Whakarewarewa near Rotorua, trading under the name 'Ram & Dass, General Storekeepers'.³⁶

Brahmans, however, can be firmly located within the same general pattern as the Jats, Ghamars, and others from rural Doaba. They came from villages and having arrived in New Zealand they worked as scrubcutters in the same way as their fellow-villagers.

One final point may be noted with regard to the caste figures for the 1912-21 period. They do not include a single Ramgarhia Sikh. At first sight this may seem surprising, for Ramgarhias were prominent in Punjabi migration to East Africa³⁷ and one need only observe the number of Ramgarhia gurdwaras in England today to appreciate their importance in the recent flow of Punjabis

to the United Kingdom.³⁸ It is, however, a feature easily explained. The caste constituency of the old-established New Zealand community was determined by the migrants who entered the country prior to 1922. By limiting subsequent immigration to the families of men who had already arrived or were on their way the 1920 Act fixed the caste profile for the next thirty years. The principal Ramgarhia migration took place after the door had been closed. Since World War II a few Punjabis unconnected with earlier immigrants have been admitted, but they have been selected from professions with a limited Ramgarhia representation. As far as I am aware only one Ramgarhia (a recent arrival) has secured permanent residence.³⁹

One feature of the period which is not indicated by the tables is that many of the migrants came to New Zealand in groups. This feature was noted by Kessinger when investigating emigration to Australia during the 1890s.⁴⁰ In the case of the small-scale movement to New Zealand it is well illustrated by the group of thirty Punjabis who in April 1914 boarded the S. S. Aparima at Calcutta, bound for Fiji.⁴¹ The group was in fact a conglomerate of smaller groups, but all came from the contiguous areas of Nawanshahr and Garhshankar tahsils. One such sub-group consisted of four Chamars, three of them from Khera village, near Mahilpur.⁴² An even larger group of Chamars, drawn to­gether from Khera and three other villages, had earlier left for the same destination.⁴³ Most members of both groups eventually moved on to New Zealand in smaller groups or as individuals.

It will be noted that both of these groups had as their original destination Fiji, not New Zealand. After Australia was closed to Asian immigration, and particularly after North America followed the Australian example, Fiji became the principal goal for Punjabis seeking work overseas. New Zealand, as we have already observed, was for several years a post-Fiji destination which until 1920/21 was accessible to those who could complete the required entry form in English. Table 5 indicates that Fiji was the almost invariable route until 1918, and during the brief remaining period of easy access which followed World War I several more arrived in New Zealand from Suva.

Table 5
Route to New Zealand 1912-21

Note : The immigrant listed under 'via Australia' (Narain Singh of Jandiala) actually worked in  

Australia prior to entering New Zealand. Those who travelled direct to New Zealand necessarily passed through Australia, but did so only as transit passengers. Narain Singh was able to linger as his father was already in Australia.

The only exceptions to the Fiji rule between 1912 and 1918 were Kalian Singh of Raipur Dabba (whom we have already noted) and the two late entrants from the earlier period who have been omitted from the figures for 1912-21.⁴⁴ It was, in other words, the standard route and the final destination was one which for most would have been unintended when they left their homes in the Punjab. If they had an onward destination in mind it would normally have been the United States which in theory (if not in practice) remained open until 1917.⁴⁵ Indeed, many seem not to have heard of New Zealand before leaving their homes. Some ships bound for Fiji called at Auckland in transit, an experience which provided Kahan Singh with his opportunity and alerted others to the possibilities which New Zealand seemed to offer.⁴⁶ Some presumably decided to seek entry to New Zealand after reaching Fiji. For all who desired entry the English-language form was mandatory, and as most of the migrants during the 1912-18 period were illiterate (or literate in Gurmukhi or Persian Urdu) the rudimentary English required for the form had to be learned in Fiji.

           As far as I am aware all but two of the Punjabis who came on to New Zealand from Fiji had previously travelled there as 'free' migrants. Although a substantial majority undertook unskilled labouring jobs in Fiji⁴⁷ they found their way to the colony at their own expense, not as indentured labourers The only possible exceptions to this rule were Nabbi Bakhsh and Vazir Ali, two Muslims from Saloh village in Nawanshahr tahsil. According to my principal Muslim informant both men went to Fiji 'under 5 year guarantee scheme from the British'. The report adds that instead of completing their five-year terms both men moved on to New Zealand after only three years.⁴⁸ Indenture agreements could not normally be broken in this way and my informant was unable to say how Nabbi Bakhsh and Vazir Ali managed to do so.

Although Doabis seldom (if ever) accepted indenture agree­ments it is nevertheless possible that indenture agents may have been partly responsible for introducing an awareness of Fiji into eastern Doaba. We have aleady noted that such agents were evidently operating beyond Delhi and although the Punjab supplied them with very few recruits their propaganda presumably spread further than their actual presence. The other obvious source for the earliest information would have been the reports brought back by Punjabis who had been in Australia. The im­mediate source for many of the actual emigrants was a Muslim family of Karnana in Nawanshahr tahsil. The Shah brothers of Karnana (Wali Muhammad Shah, Atta Muhammad Shah and Nikka Shah) had all been in Aus­tralia and had actually assisted some emigrants to travel there before the 1901 Act came into force. They then switched their attention to Fiji and eventually to New Zealand, organising passages for prospective emigrants and collecting a commission from shipping companies for their service. Leaflets were printed to advertise the advantages of emigration, preliminary for­malities were completed with their assistance, and escorts were provided as far as Calcutta.⁴⁹ By no means all who tra­velled to Fiji from the Nawanshahr area did so with the assistance of the Shah brothers, but their agency operated in

the centre of the principal source area and they obviously contributed to the new Fiji flow. Their efforts, which are said to have extended well beyond their own tahsil, were evidently supplemented by contributions by individuals who had returned from Fiji.⁵⁰

The period 1912-18 was thus pre-eminently the Fiji period, It was a process which continued into the period which followed as a trickle of Punjabis continued to arrive in Auckland from Suva, while others were following them from the Punjab to Fiji. Even after the 1920 Act had been firmly applied hopeful Punjabis continued to land in Fiji with the express intention of continuing on to New Zealand.⁵¹ There was, however, a signi­ficant change taking place in the immediate post-war years. Just as 1912-18 was the Fiji phase, 1919-21 was to be the direct phase. Practically all the Punjabis who entered New Zealand from Fiji during this brief post-war period were men who had left their homes before the war had ended. Those who made their decisions and their departures after the war, and who managed to enter New Zealand before the door was closed, were men who travelled direct.

As table 6 indicates the brief post-war phase also differs from the 1912-18 period in other important respects. The second significant difference indicated by the table is that balance has now swung from the Dhak region to Manjki. The contrast becomes even more marked when the individual returns are analysed, for they reveal that whereas the eighteen arrivals who travelled direct from Phillaur had no previous con­nection with New Zealand the Nawanshahr eleven included two whose fathers were already in the country.⁵² This suggests that had the 1920 Act not intervened the proportion of Manjki immigrants in New Zealand would soon have appoached the Nawanshahr/Garhshankar total and could possibly have passed it.

The fact that a majority of the immigrants were now travel­ling direct to New Zealand signals yet another important differ­ence distinguishing the 1919-21 phase from its predecessor. In spite of the laxity of the New Zealand screening procedures it

Table 6
Punjabi immigrants entering New Zealand 1919-21
analysed in terms of regional origins and route

would still be assumed that those who wished to enter direct would have to acquire some facility in English before leaving India. As this implies the educational standards attained by the direct immigrants were higher than those typical of their predecessors. Needless to say there were exceptions to this rule, but the individual profiles demonstrate that it was generally true. Yet another difference was that the new generation of immigrants was generally more affluent than those who had earlier travelled to Fiji, and they were usually unmarried when they   first  left India.

It seems clear that a distinctively different pattern was emer­ging during the immediate post-war years. It was different in terms of its principal regional source; it was also different in terms of the educational skills, economic levels, and marital status of the new migrants. The caste distribution also shows some signs of change. Jats maintain their overwhelming lead and the tiny Brahman contribution continues. Chamar numbers however, show a noticeable drop and both Mahtons and Sainis disappear completely. The various features of this pattern are compatible one with another. Higher educational standards tend to accompany greater affluence, and both tend to be asso­ciated  with higher caste rankings.

Apart from the change in immediate destination the actual process of getting oneself to the South Pacific was much the same as it had been during the 1912-18 phase. Emigrants still travelled down to Calcutta in groups and there embarked on vessels which would take them at least part of the way to their destination. One such group comprising at least fifteen young men from Bundala, Jandiala and Rurki left the area on or about 5 March 1920 and sailed from Calcutta three days later. The experiences which the group encountered are recorded in a diary kept by Phuman Singh of Rurki and the memoir dic­tated by Santa Singh of Jandiala. They were also descri­bed to me by Karam Singh Basi and Milkhi Ram Fermah of Bundala and by Gurdas Singh Johal of Jandiala.⁵³

Although the group evidently left India together they must have split into at least two groups on the way. The inward passen­ger lists in Auckland indicate that four members of the group arrived in Auckland on 22 June 1920 and that another three followed on 22 November 1920. Santa Singh had been dropped from the main party in Singapore as there was insufficient room for him on the vessel taken by the remainder. Phuman Singh, who evidently continued with the main group, records in his diary that he travelled on a succession of ships via Penang, Sin­gapore, Batavia, Brisbane and Sydney before reaching Auck­land on 22 June  1920.⁵⁴

Several of the informants from this  1920 group have also

described their first few days in New Zealand. In common with many others who arrived during the post-war period they pro­ceeded immediately from Auckland to the so-called 'Hindu farm' near the Waikato township of Kihikihi.⁵⁵ This farm, which was owned by Indar Singh Mahasha and operated by him in associa­tion with three other Punjabis, briefly served one of the primary purposes of a foreign gurdwara. In territories such as Canada and Fiji which attracted an appreciable number of Sikhs a gurdwara was regarded as an early necessity. As soon as possi­ble a serviceable building was purchased and converted into a gurdwara. The purpose, however, was only partly the perfor­mance of traditional Sikh rituals. The actual function of the gurdwara in such circumstances was rather to serve as a meeting-place and as a hospice for travellers. For those who were already in the country it was a place to meet fellow-Punjabis, consume Punjabi fare, and sing Punjabi songs. For new arrivals it served both purposes. There they could find temporary shelter as soon as they set foot on foreign soil, and they could also seek advice and assistance from their predecessors.

The 'Hindu farm' fulfilled the latter function of a gurdwara during the 1920-21 period. If they had not already heard of the place new arrivals were soon directed there by the first Punjabis whom they encountered in New Zealand.⁵⁶ At the farm they were given accommodation for as long as they needed it and temporary jobs were found for them in the vicinity. After a period of adjustment they left the farm, following whatever advice they had been given concerning employment prospects. The farm had only a short life as Indar Singh was forced to sell in 1922 or early 1923. It was, however, functioning during a critical period as far as Punjabi immigration was concerned. By the time Indar Singh sold his property the 1920 Act was in force. The staging-post services of the Hindu farm were no longer needed after the Act took effect, for every new arrival who entered New Zealand thereafter would necessarily have a father or senior relative to guide him during his early days.

Indar Singh with pack-horses, 1907.  Indar Singh hawked clothing and soft goods in the Waikato district early this  century.

By the end of 1921 the restrictions imposed by the Immigration Restriction Amendment Act of 1920 were firmly in pace and from that time until after World War II a strict control was exercised over Punjabi immigration (as over immigration from other Asian sources). The only new entrants were to be the the wives and minor children of men who had already secured admission. Until the post-war period this meant, in effect, that the new entrants were all either the wives or the sons of men who had reached the country by 1921. The only exceptions to this rule were a handful of boys or young men who had been 'adopted' by relatives and were able to enter as their sons, plus one aged father who was evidently admitted as an act of grace.⁵⁷

The result was that subsequent immigration from the Punjab largely reflected the pattern which had emerged during the 1912-21 period. The only significant divergence was an increase in the number and proportion of women.⁵⁸ There were, of course, some important locational changes as Punjabi workers in New Zealand moved southwards in search of employment, and there are also some evident fluctuations in actual numbers as economic or political circumstances offered opportunities or discourage­ment. The original profile of regional and caste origins, however, remained essentially unchanged. In this section we shall briefly analyse that profile for the period 1922-45, taking no account of departures from the country or movements within it. A cautious attempt to identify variations in actual numbers and in area distribution will be made in a later section.⁵⁹

Arrivals during the period 1922-39 may be analysed as indicated in tables 7 and 8. The period terminates at 1939 for the purposes of this analysis, for all immigration from the Punjab ceased during World War II. The only exception which I have encountered was a Chamar from Haphowal village in Nawanshahr tahsil who secured temporary admission when he arrived from Fiji in 1942.

The usual cautions and qualifications must be added to these tables which, like those for the period 1912-21, can lay no claim to definitive certainty.   Like their predecessors they have been

Table 8
Caste 1922-39

compiled  from oral  reports,  correspondence and shipping lists, supplemented by the  Register of Immigrants⁶⁰ and also by the attendance lists attached to Country Section minutes dating from 1926.⁶¹   Although this will seem to be   a reasonably satisfactory array of sources problems  still persisted  and some of these have not  been finally solved.     For example, there appears    in   the attendance list  for the 1928  minutes of the Country Section the signature 'Jaswat Singh'.   This must obviously be read as Jaswa n Singh, but no such name appears in any other source and none of my informants can remember any  such person.   Sometimes confusion may be caused  by name-changes.   I have detected at least three instances within  the 1922-39 period.   On 3 December 1929, for example, a Kerneil Singh entered the country—and then disappeared.    He turns out to  be Batan Singh,   son of Samund Singh of Nivin Muthade-⁶²

       Shipping lists and the Register of Immigrants have certainly been useful, but they are far from foolproof. As we have already noted they distinguish Punjabis from other Indians only in the case of Sikhs (recognisable by their distinctive names). In everal instances I was unable to trace names of individuals whom I knew from other sources were certainly in New Zealand and on one occasion I was confronted by a curious official version which

required decoding. The Register of Immigrants for 22 February 1937 records that a certain Amar Singh arrived with his two sons, named respectively Alkhu and Alakh Ram.⁶³ I can only assume that the father must be Amar Singh of Shakohpur in Nawanshahr tahsil and that the mysterious Alkhu at d Alakh Ram must be his sons Banarsi and Sagli Ram. It is, however, an unproven guess and there is no evidence concerning their ages.

Others who entered New Zealand during this period or were born here of Punjabi parents have been omitted because I deduce that they were still dependent minors in 1939/40. In other words, the males listed in the tables are all understood to have reached working age and to have joined their fathers in the work-force. It has, however, proved difficult to screen out all the school-age minor sons satisfactorily and it is possible that errors have been made in this respect. All but one of the daughters who entered or were born during the period 1922-39 have been omitted as they seem to have still been school-age minors. The one exception is Kartari, daughter of Phuman Singh of Rurki. Kartari (b. 6/2/15) arrived in New Zealand on 25 August 1925 and was married to Surain  Singh of Sultanpur on 25 November 1932.

A final qualification concerns the remainder of the women As with the two Punjabi women included in the 1912-21 tables they have been listed in their husbands' categories. The situation is, however, less clear for this later period and it is not always safe to assume that a wife actually did come from the same area within eastern Doaba, or even from eastern Doaba itself. Munshi Ram of Darapur brought his second wife Chand Kaur into New Zealand on 20 May 1929, having married her in Fiji. There is no indication of Chand Kaur's origins. The antecedents of Gayatri, wife of Jugti Sahungra, are similiarly uncertain.⁶⁴

Tables 7 and 8 must accordingly be regarded as indicators rather than as precise descriptions of the 1922-39 pattern. As such they confirm the expectations prompted by the 1920 Act. Numbers are considerably down. Whereas more than 200 Punjabis entered New Zealand during the decade preceding the Act the number of immigrants from the Punjab drops to less than 100 for the two

Wedding-day group at the marriage of Surain Singh of Sultanpur and Kartari. daughter of Phuman Singh of Rurki (25 November 1932).
Left to right : Santa Singh of Jandiala, Khushi Ram of Rurki, Amar Chand of Mirpurlakha, Munshi Singh
Nikka Singh of Rasulpur, Karam Singh Basi of Bundala, Ganga Singh of Rurki, Gajja Singh
of Sultanpur,  Surain  Singh,  Dass Mahima Singh (son of Phuman Singh), Phuman Singh,
Gulzar Singh (son of Phuman Singh, in front).    The   photograph was taken at  the home of
Phuman Singh, Piraunui Road, Te Aroha.

decades which follow it (and ceases altogether for the third decade). The intention of the Act had clearly been achieved, at least with regard to this particular segment of Indian immigration. The immigrants who enter during the period 1922-39 conform to the general profile of 1912-21 Punjabi immigration except in one fundamental respect. Only three Punjabi women arrived during the 1912-21 phase (1.4 per cent of the total). For the later period the number rises to 27 (30 per cent of the total). In other respects the later period is dictated by its predecessor. Nawanshahr tahsil continues to predominate as a source area, with Phillaur tahsil a strong second. The Garhshankar and Hoshiarpur proportions have slipped a little and no immigrants arrived from either Jullundur City or the Majha region. Jat and Chamar represen­tation is Slightly strengthened; Mahtons, Brahmans and Sainis hold their own; Muslims decline; and most of the other caste groups disappear completely.

Whereas most of the early immigrants had chosen rural hawk­ing or coal-mining as an occupation those who arrived from 1912 onwards were principally involved in rural development, working for long hours in conditions of considerable privation. All but one seem to have begun their New Zealand careers as rural labourers.⁶⁵ Hawking continued to exercise a limited attraction, but for all Punjabis to seek employment in this occupation would plainly have been to invite disaster.⁶⁶ It was a conspicuous role and it was precisely this visibility which had so strengthened support for the 1901 Immigration Act. One of the primary concerns in occupational choice has remained (for the Punjabis) the question of visibility.

Low visibility was thus a major reason favouring rural development. By choosing such occupations as drain-digging and scrub-cutting Punjabi immigrants could be assured of an incon­spicuous role in New Zealand society. Such employment required them to live in remote rural areas, working on tasks which few New Zealanders would willingly choose because of their loneliness and their rigour.    Scrub-cutting was particularly well-suited to

this need. The hills which had to be cleared of manuka and gorse were usually many miles from even the smallest of towns, separated from them by rough roads and populated by very few Europeans. Indeed, their isolation was such that few New Zealanders were aware that Indian scrub-cutters even existed. These were favoured circumstances as far as the Pu jabis were concerned. They were noticed by few New Zealanders and those who were aware of their presence would be unlikely to regard them as competitors for desirable employment, finite resources, or social status.

The occupations chosen by most Punjabis also had other advantages. One was the combination of reasonable returns and limited consumption which they offered. As one would expect the actual rates for unskilled labour of this kind were low. The nature of their chosen occupations did, however, mean that long hours could be worked. The Punjabi villagers who migrated to New Zealand were typically robust and had been nurtured in a tradition of hard, uncomplaining labour. Their remote camps in the central North Island provided them with few diversions and a working week of six long days was the norm. The Punjabis had also been raised on a healthy but frugal diet with few expect­ations beyond the fundamental necessities of life. Housing needs were likewise minimal, most Punjabi labourers spending their New Zealand years in tents or dilapidated huts. Alcohol was the only noticeable exception to this rule, and even that was a controlled luxury in the scrub-cutting environment. Long hours Combined with low consumption spelt savings, and it was to save money for home requirements that most Punjabis had come to New Zealand. The rigours were hard but for Punjabi villagers they were bearable and the returns made them worthwhile. The fact that these occupations required no capital investment further contributed to the Punjabi preference.

Another advantage of rural employment in flax-cutting, drainage, or scrub-clearance was that it enabled the Punjabis to work in gangs. A few preferred the solitude of hawking or share-milking, but most needed the regular company of Punjabi-speaking compatriots.   This was supplied by the gang system.   Much of

the casual labour in rural New Zealand is provided by organised groups of this kind. (Sheep-shearing is another prominent example.) It is a system which most of the Punjabi immigrants found congenial, for in such circumstances they could prepare their own food and converse in their own language. The food preference was not a matter of mere taste Dining with Europeans or Maoris could involve the risk that they might be eating beef or one of its derivatives.

These were the principal advantages of rural labour for the Punjabis,  and it is probably  legitimate to add that their village antecedents predisposed  them to  work in a  rural environment. There were,  however, distinct  preferences  within the range of available rural labour,  preferences  which were dictated by the factors noted above.    Some forms of rural  labour were obviously unattractive.    Sheep-shearing,  for example,  has  never  known a Punjabi  gang.    This   was   presumably   because   shearing   is   a seasonal  occupation, one which could bring reasonable returns during the summer months but  which offered nothing  during the autumn, winter  and much of the  spring.⁶⁷    This  employment pattern, which suited many Maoris, did  not interest the Punjabis. Unskilled labour in  freezing-works was unattractive for the same reason,  and possibly because it might also involve handling skins and beef carcases.⁶⁸

For many of the early arrivals from 1912 onwards flax-cutting was to be the first of the chosen occupations. In the case of the Punjabis this activity was limited to the Hauraki Plains and the immediately adjacent portions of South Auckland and the Waikato where they worked in places such as Netherton, Tahuna, Patetonga, Kaihere, Pokeno and Orini⁶⁹ Few traces of their activities now survive, although it is still possible to identify the sites of some of their camps.⁷⁰ One source for this period which does survive consists of a ledger and correspondence copy book maintained by the Ngarua Flax Company of Patetonga. The ledger runs from mid-1917 until late 1920, and the copy book from 28 August 1918 until the firm ceased operations in March 1921.⁷¹ During this period the firm employed several Punjabis who  appear intermittently on its pay-roll,  obviously hired for

short-term periods as casual labourers. Sometimes they are named individually; elsewhere they are lumped together as 'Indians' or 'Hindoos'. I was told by one of my Patetonga informants, Mr Ken Hunter, that the Punjabis (almost all of them Sikhs) were invariably known as 'Hindoos' by the local people.⁷²

The first entry is actually payment to 'Harman Singh' and 'Meha Singh' for cutting manuka, not flax. This they did in July 1917 for the proprietor of the firm, Mr. Douglas Hunter. Each was paid £ 5.2.6 (82 hours @ one shilling and threepence per hour)⁷³ The same two men were employed as flax-cutters in August and September 1917. During this brief period they were paid at the rate of twelve shillings for an unspecified unit while cutting flax; £ 1 per diem when working on a daily rate; and one shilling and sixpence  per hour for 'pulling out tram timber'.⁷⁴

In the months which follow Punjabi names appear, disappear, and return. Hazara Singh and Chancel Singh were evidently gang leaders as there are several entries which read 'Hazara & Co' or 'Chancel & Co'.⁷⁵ Altogether sixteen Punjabis can be recognised in the books of the Ngarua Flax Company for the period 1917-20, most of them making more than one appearance. One of them, Nikka Singh of Rasulpur, remained in Patetonga for many years after the mills had closed and the other Punjabis had departed. The local store, which was patronised by the Punjabis during their flax-cutting days, still retained in 1977 copies of Nikka Singh's detailed purchases for the period Decem­ber 1931 to February 1932.⁷⁶

Nikka Singh reported that after the flax-cutting came to an end he took up drain-digging as an occupation.⁷⁷ For those who remained on the Hauraki Plains this involved the clearing of existing drains rather than digging new ones. Over in the Waikato, however, it meant digging new drains in order to convert swampy land into dairy pasture. Punjabis had actually been digging drains in this area since the beginning of the 1912-21 period, most of them in the area surrounding Te Awamutu.⁷⁸ This occupation evidently acquired a growing popularity amongst the Punjabis as the flax industry declined after World War I, but was soon to  be replaced by the  activity  which  remained  dominant until

after World War II. Although a few continued to dig drains through the 1920s most moved south and found employment as scrub-cutters.

Scrub clearance had been one of the tasks undertaken by the early arrivals from Fiji, though initially it seems to have been less common than either of the other two occupations   Pastoral de­velopment in the King Country opened the way for  the first long term opportunities in  scrub-cutting and so  it was to this district in the centre of the North  Island, hilly and relatively inaccessible, that Punjabis were increasingly  drawn during World War I and the  post-war years.⁷⁹   There   they  formed  a tiny  community, dispersed  in  small gangs  over an extensive area for most of their time but occasionally gathering as a group in some convenient place.   The principal centre for the  King Country  is  the  small town of Taumarunui and it naturally looms large in the memories of  those    who   worked   in   the   surrounding hills.    Even more prominent in their recollections, however,  is the tiny settlement of Manunui,  a short distance to the east of Taumarunui. Several actually lived in Manunui during  the  scrub-cutting  period  and one of the pre-1921 immigrants (Bhagat Singh of Marnaian Kalan) still lives  there  with his wife.⁸⁰

It is not clear when the first Punjabis moved into the King Country. C.F. Andrews, writing to Rabindranath Tagore from Taumarunui in October 1915, mentions 'a few scattered Indians here at work in the brickfields', but adds that they were all Gujaratis.⁸¹ The earliest reference appearing in the reports which I have received is a tentative mention of 1917. In or about that year Arjan Singh and Atma Singh from Mahilpur arrived from Fiji and travelled down to Taumarunui, followed soon after by Ajit Singh Bains from the same village ⁸² Mr. Piara Singh Bains, son of Ajit Singh, has reported that when his father reached Taumarunui and joined his mates at least four other Punjabis were already working in the district.⁸³ It is not possible to say when they had arrived, nor how many other Punjabis were with them, but it seems safe to assume that they would have been amongst the first Punjabi scrub-cutters to move into the King Country.    It also seems safe to assume that they would  not have

been in the district for very long when the Mahilpur trio arrived.

By the mid 1920s it is evident that the King Country was becoming the principal area of Punjabi activity in New Zealand, both numerically and in terms of community leadership. This, as we shall see, is clearly indicated by the events of 1926 and by a list of names which survives from that year.⁸⁴ Some still remained on the Hauraki Plains and in the Te Awamutu area, and a small advance guard had already moved southwards to the Wanganui hinterland and eastwards into Hawkes Bay. The principal concentration, however, was the King Country, parti­cularly the district immediately surrounding Taumarunui and Manunui.

The late 1920s evidently marked the climax of Punjabi activity in the King Country. During the early 1930s several of the scrub-cutters returned to India because of the slump which so seriously affected employment prospects in New Zealand. Those who remained increasingly concentrated their activities on the Wanganui area, progressively moving southwards through Makirikiri to the district inland from the tiny settlement of Fordell. This now became the principal centre for the reduced Punjabi labour-force. In Makirikiri employment had been provided by the Lismore Station.⁸⁵ During the Fordell phase employers included Messrs Campion, Cranston and Wyliy. (Mr Roy Campion, who provided work for approximately eighteen Punjabi scrub-cutters, is remembered with particular respect.⁸⁶) Later in the 1930s several Punjabis moved further inland to the hilly area west of Taihape. The principal employer in this district was the Ngamatea sheep station, a large property owned by the Fernie brothers.⁸⁷ Others moved on to Hawkes Bay (particularly the Waipukurau/Porangahau area) When scrub-cutting revived after World War II most returned to the Wanganui/Taihape area, although there were others to be found elsewhere in the southern part of the North Island.⁸⁸ As before the majority preferred to work as members of a gang, sometimes in conjunction with Maori or European gangs. In some instances employment was short-term; in others it extended over many years.⁸⁹

As the  Punjabi  scrub-cutters  moved  southwards the nature

of their occupation also underwent a change.   The 'scrub' which they were hired to clear was   the second  growth which  had appeared  in  many of the areas where the native forests of New Zealand had  been burnt  or felled.   In the  King Country the dominant scrub was the comparatively benign manuka, a native plant which can attain  the  dimensions of a small tree but which is pleasant to handle and slow to  regenerate.⁹⁰   The Wanganui area, however,  had  become infested  with exotic gorse,  a shrub which provided useful hedgerows in England  but demonstrated an alarming  vigour when transplanted  in    New   Zealand.    Gorse clearance is a much tougher assignment than manuka.    Its thorns make it difficult to handle and  its  regenerative capacity meant that in pre-herbicide days every plant  had  to be grubbed out by the roots and burnt.    Although herbicides and spraying techniques introduced after World War II released  the gorse-cutters from a part of their task it  remained an  unpleasant one.   Those who moved on from Fordell to  the Taihape  hills were more fortunate, for there they were  back in manuka  country.   Yet  it was never easy.    Scrub-cutting,  even   in    comparatively favoured circum­stances, is  always  an   arduous  occupation,  one which  requires considerable    reserves    of   both  physical and   mental  stamina. Most of the  Punjabis  who  worked  in  New  Zealand during the scrub-cutting  phase demonstrated    that   they   possessed    these reserves  and for this  reason    they  were  usually  welcomed  as employees.

       Reference has already been made to the Country Section and to the fact that its sketchy minutes give some impression of Punjabi locations from 1926 onwards. Until 1926 it is impossible to derive more than a general impression of Punjabi movements and concentrations. It is evident that a substantial majority of the immigrants who arrived in New Zealand prior to World War II landed at Auckland and, as we have already observed, there were early concentrations on the Hauraki Plains and around Te Awamutu. From these districts there was later a southwards drift into the King Country, particularly during the 1920s.

          In 1926 the curtain briefly lifts. It does so because 1926 was the year in which the forerunner of the Country Section was founded, and one of the initial tasks undertaken by this organi­sation was to compile a register of its members. The actual organisation which was founded in 1926 by a group of Punjabis living in the King Country was initially called the Indian Associ-tion.⁹¹ There were already two other Indian associations in existence, both of them Gujarati organisations. The first had been founded in Auckland in or about 1918, and a Wellington group was formed in 1925.⁹² Later in 1926 the three groups joined to form the Central Indian Association, each reserving its identity as a branch of the larger organisation. The King Country group eventually adopted the name Country Section. (The term first appears in its 1929 minutes.) Almost all who participated in its founding were Punjabis and it has ever since remained a trans-territorial branch enrolling Punjabis from several different areas. The other branches are all territorial and are overwhel­mingly Gujarati in membership. This differential system of branch enrolment has raised recurrent objections from the territorial branches, but for the Punjabis it has been a means of preserving their distinctive identity and they continue to defend the system stoutly.⁹³

          The separate associations, revived or newly-founded in 1926, were all responding to a single impulse. This was what the minutes of the inaugural Taumarunui meeting describe as the 'Pukekohe menace'. The 'Pukekohe menace' was the White New Zealand League, founded in the South Auckland town of Pukekohe in December 1925 by a group of European New Zealanders who wished to curb Indian settlement in the town.⁹⁴ Its life was short and its brief clamour soon faded from European memories. In the case of the Gujaratis and Punjabis, however, the prompt and anxious response produced an enduring result. After the three branches had been drawn together as the Central Indian Association they jointly despatched a deputation led by Dr Baldev Singh Share to wait on the Hon. R.F. Bollard, Minister of Internal Affairs, in Wellington. The excitement of 1926 soon subsided as the menace receded, but  the associations

which the League had summoned into being have even since continued to serve a useful function for both the Gujaratis and the Punjabis.

          The membership register compiled by the Taumarunui association in 1926 is particularly valuable because in most cases it lists locations as well as names. This enables us to form a reasonably clear impression of the distribution of Punjabis in New Zealand at this time, particularly when supplemented by other available indications. The register included 134 names altogether (all of them adult males). Of this total 122 are Punjabis, eleven are Gujaratis and one name is a duplicate. Those who appear in the register can be classified in residential terms as follows :

Table 9 Indian Association register of 1926 analysed in terms of residence
(adult males)

Four of those included in the 'Not specified' category can be placed at various points on the Hauraki Plains. Individual biographies also enable us to place ten more adult male Punjabis with reasonable assurance at various places in the North Island, plus an additional twenty who can be regarded as probable. When these thirty-four are added to the 1926 register the district totals for adult male Punjabis  emerge as follows :

Table 10 Adjusted district figures for 1926 (adult male Punjabis)

          The individual biographies enable us to identify twenty Punjabis who died in New Zealand or left the country perma­nently between 1922 and 1926. They also indicate that in addi­tion to the 145 included in table 10 there were 55 more adult males who spent time in New Zealand before and after 1926 but who cannot be placed in a particular district during 1926. (This figure includes the seven from the 1926 list who remain unlocated.) Added to the total for table 10 this group of 55 unlocated men brings the total for adult male Punjabis to exactly 200. It is. however, inconceivable that all 200 would actually have been in New Zealand in mid-1926. Some of the unlocated 55 must surely have been temporarily absent in India, for home visits were a regular feature of the Punjabi way of life in New Zealand. It is possible that when the six Punjabi wives resident in New Zealand by 1926 are added to the total it would approach 200. This, however, remains an uncertain conclusion.

          The real value of the 1926 register is thus the regional distribution which it indicates rather than the actual total which

it delivers. It should be remembered that the association which compiled the register was based in Taumarunui and that the omission rate probably increases as its purview moves outwards from this centre. Supplementary sources suggest, however, that this should not be regarded as a significant feature. Nine names can be added to the Hauraki total, but this is scarcely more than the eight which can be added in the case of the King Country. It seems reasonable to conclude that the general profile indi­cated by both the 1926 register and the adjusted district figures is a reliable one. This profile confirms a general movement southwards into the King Country, centred particularly on Taumarunui and Manunui.

          Further analysis of the 1926 register indicates one other inte­resting feature. Whereas the Jats, Mahtons, Sainis, Brahmans, and Muslims are scattered over several districts the Chamars are strongly concentrated in the Te Awamutu area. Seventeen of the nineteen Chamars who can be placed are to be found within this district, fourteen of them attached to Te Awamutu itself. This supports a natural expectation that migrant Chamars would tend to form their own separate gangs, a feature which is fur­ther supported by informants' reports. It is, however, a strong tendency rather than a firm rule. Informants' reports have also turned up instances of Chamars working with Jats and men of other castes.

          After 1926 the detailed pattern of distribution once again becomes uncertain. Individual biographies indicate that many Punjabis returned to India during the course of the slump in the early 1930s and that several of those who remained moved back to the Hauraki and Waikato districts.⁹⁵ When numbers revived in the later 1930s the principal centre evidently became Fordell in the Wangarui district. This tentative conclusion is supported by the fact that the three Country Section meetings minuted during the later 1930s were all held in Fordell.⁹⁶ It remains, however, an uncertain impression, soon to be replaced by another reversal of the migration flow. During the early years of World War II there was a growing belief within the Punjabi community that travel between New Zealand and India might  soon  be disrupted.

Many acted accordingly and returned to India before their well-grounded fears became a reality. I have not attempted to determine the Punjabi numbers for the war years, but clearly they were much lower than they had been in the 1920s or the later 1930s. Those who did remain continued to work in the same occupations as before. For most this meant several more years of scrub-cutting in remote country districts.

          Scrub-cutting was the principal activity during the period extending from the early 1920s until well into the 1950s. There were, however, a few Punjabis who preferred other employment. As we have noted some remained in the Hauraki and Te Awamutu areas where some scrub clearance was still needed but where the usual employment was either flax-cutting or ditchdigging. Other Punjabis continued the hawking tradition or moved into saw-milling and store-keeping enterprises.⁹⁷ Occasionally an opportu­nity for gang labour appeared which involved neither flax nor scrub. During the early 1920s a group of four or five Punjabis spent two years digging gravel out of the Taringamotu river, just north of Taumarunui.⁹⁸ A few men worked for periods as farm labourers, sometimes as a supplement to drainage or scrub-cutting and sometimes on a full-time basis. In the latter case they usually milked cows.

          Those who milked other men's cows were always few in number. This applied to those who did so as wage-earning labourers and also to the small number who became share-milkers.⁹⁹ There are obvious reasons for this reluctance, all of them reasons which we have already noted when discussing the popularity of flax-cutting, drainage, and scrub-clearance. Milking cows for wages or a share of the returns tended to isolate the individual Punjabi while reducing his chances of working long hours for ever-accumulating wages. There was, moreover, a some­what greater problem as far as relationships with European society were concerned. If one were aiming to establish a per­manent niche in New Zealand society milking cows might have a part to play.    For those who earned  in order to repatriate funds

and ultimately return to India it was perceived as a less satisfactory option than the usual Punjabi choices.

          There were, however, a few exceptions and most of these proved to be men who eventually committed themselves to per­manent residence in New Zealand. For such men milking cows was a natural and sensible choice, even if this were not clearly perceived at the time. It was a natural choice because it was congenial to Punjabi village traditions, with their strong emphasis on the role of the buffalo in rural society. Buffaloes were valued for their agricultural importance as draught animals, for the milk which they supplied, and for the status which they conferred. Milk was (and remains) a staple item in the diet of rural Punjab, providing curd, butter-milk (lasi), ghi and some delectable varieties of confectionery as well as the substantial quantities which are freshly drunk. Milking cows was thus a natural choice. It was also a sensible one because it provided experience in the operation of a New Zealand dairy farm. Those who eventually purchased farms of their own normally did so after working as farm labourers or share-milkers.

          For those who eventually bought their own farms the dairy farm had other advantages in addition to the traditional sentiment noted above. One was the comparative cheapness of a dairy farm during the years preceding the recent boom in all rural land values. Grazing sheep required a larger property than dairy farming and although the land might be inferior to dairy pasture it typically required a substantially larger capital outlay. Careful saving plus experience would normally mean access to loan finance; and with the usual Punjabi pattern of hard work and low consumption a small marginal farm might well be enlarged to form a secure unit. The slump was to demonstrate that even the Punjabi could be vulnerable, but a few were able to survive and eventually to prosper

          A second advantage of dairy farming (one which it shared with the labouring employment chosen by most Punjabis) was that it did not involve serious competition with Europeans. It did bring the Punjabi into the context of European society (he was no longer distant and   isolated in  the manner of the scrub-

cutter) and this certainly involved a measure of implied social competition which could occasionally prompt unpleasantness.¹⁰⁰ Each dairy farm was nevertheless an independent unit and the individual farmer's performance as a producer neither helped nor hindered his neighbour, except perhaps as a challenge. There might be occasional grumbles, but seldom an open resentment and never (as far as I am aware) any determined attempt to obstruct a Punjabi dairy farmer.

          A third advantage was that a dairy farm enabled a Punjabi to live once again as a family man. Wives and children were a positive burden to the scrub-cutter and most preferred to leave their families at home in India. On a dairy farm, however, a wife was an unpaid helper as well as a companion, and children could also assist with various tasks. Families provided economic bene-. lit as well as a comfort and moral support. By coming to New Zealand they also weakened the ties with the Punjab and, as the children grew older, progressively strengthened the dairy farmer's involvement with his local New Zealand community. It was not the mere purchasing of land which accounts for the growing inclination of Punjabi dairy farmers to remain in New Zealand.

          The move to dairy farming was thus a natural one and had there not been such a firm intention to return to India there would doubtless have been more Punjabis seeking to acquire farms during the inter-war years. There were in fact very few who did make the attempt and some of them were compelled to relinquish their properties during the slumps of the early 1920s and early 1930s. I have been able to locate only fourteen Punjabi dairy farms during this period, seven of which were still owned by Punjabis in 1937.

          The earliest example whom I have encountered of a Punjabi farming in New Zealand is Khushi Ram Kapoor. Prior to World War I he briefly leased a small property at Taringamotu in the King Country.¹⁰¹ It was, however, a short-term lease and it was not necessarily a dairy Farm. The first definite example of a Punjabi dairy farm appears to be a small fifty-acre property near the Waikato township of Kihikihi, purchased by Harnam Singh of Mothada Khurd during the rates  period for the

year 1918/19.¹⁰² This purchase evidently preceded that of the celebrated 'Hindu farm' which was acquired soon after by Inder Singh Mahasha. Although informants' reports have gi\en the distinct impression that the 'Hindu farm' existed at an earlier date the Rangiaohia Road Board District Valuation Rolls clearly indicate that it was purchased by Inder Singh during the 1920/21 rates period. This means that it could not have been acquired before April 1920 at the earliest. ¹⁰³

         The 'Hindu farm' was also situated near Kihikihi, little more than a mile from its south-eastern corner. It comprised three allotments (each of them approximately fifty acres in area) fronting onto the Kihikihi-Arapuni road and extending north­wards.¹⁰⁴ As we have already seen, the farm is well remembered by immigrants who survive from the 1920-21 period, several of whom found hospitality there when first they landed in New Zealand or returned after an absence from the country.¹⁰⁵ According to the Rangiaohia Road Board District Valuation Rolls the three allotments were detached from a larger property to form a separate farm unit in 1912. Indar Singh purchased the farm from Mr Charles Clarke during the 1920/21 rates year and sold it to Mr William Pollard in late 1922 or early 1923. It is generally believed that the farm was owned by a syndicate of four Punjabis, the other three being Samund Singh of Nivin Muthade, Nand Singh of Sultanpur, and Prem Singh of Bhandal.¹⁰⁶ The purchase and sale records make it clear, however, that Indar Singh was the sole owner. His three associates obviously assisted with the management of the farm, but if they made a financial contribution to its purchase they must have done so in the form of loans to Indar Singh.

          The reasons for its short life have not been indicated by any of my informants, but some obvious possibilities can be suggested. Although the property was sufficiently large for a dairy farm and potentially very productive it was still only partially developed. The four co-managers may have shared the typical Punjabi ability to live very cheaply, but if the farm were to be properly developed it needed appropriate expenditure rather than firmly-held purse-strings.   It was evidently  a  marginal  unit and in the depressed

economic circumstances of the early 1920s it proved to be too much for Indar Singh and his associates. The cost of hospitality for new arrivals may also have contributed to their failure.

          Harnam Singh seems to have given up the struggle at about the same time. He paid his rates for 1921/22, but nothing is recorded thereafter. While these two were relinquishing their farms a third Punjabi was acquiring one, though it may not have been a dairy farm and it was not obtained by purchase. One of the pre-1912 arrivals, Munshi Ram of Darapur, had contracted a marriage with a Maori woman who owned some property and prior to her death in 1922 or 1923 she made a will which beque­athed it to her Punjabi husband. It did not remain with him for long. Munshi Ram soon found himself in difficulties and after mortgaging the farm he was compelled to auction it.¹⁰⁷

          By the mid-1920s all Punjabi farms acquired to date had thus ended in failure. Harnam Singh did not surrender his ambition and in or about 1927 he purchased His second fifty-acre dairy farm, this one at Waihou near Te Aroha. It too was to be a brief tenure. The slump of the early 1930s again forced him to sell and it was not until 1944 or 1945 that he eventually secured a property which he was able to retain.¹⁰⁸

          Meanwhile, the first of the successful farms had been purchased and firmly secured. In early 1927 Phuman Singh of Rurki took eighty acres on lease at Manawaru, also near Te Aroha. Later in the same year he purchased the property with the assistance of a bank loan and it has remained in his family ever since. Phuman Singh did not completely cut his ties with India retaining to the end a small holding in Rurki. Increasingly, however, it became clear that his lot had been cast with New Zealand where eventually he died in 1980.¹⁰⁹

         The strategy which Phuman Singh so successfully adopted proved to be a common pattern in the future, particularly after World War II. Savings earned from a variety of labouring jobs provided the initial capital for a comparatively undeveloped property. This was supplemented by loan finance which was repaid as rapidly as possible. (As usual the Punjabi capacity for  inexpensive living proved  to be  a   significant advantage.)

Meanwhile the farm was progressively improved, with wife and sons assisting wherever possible. As the eldest son grew to manhood a second property was purchased and either this or the original farm eventually transferred to him.¹¹⁰ Once again the purchase was effected with the assistance of a bank loan and the original development plan repeated. It was not a strategy which all were able to adopt, but it become a generally accepted aim and some were conspicuously successful in applying it.¹¹¹

          In Phuman Singh's case the original property was sufficiently large to develop  into  a  soundly  viable unit.    Others began the process a stage earlier by purchasing a holding which could never support a  man  and  his  family.   This    would  be farmed as  a part-time occupation and with the savings earned from continued labouring a supplement  would  later be  added  or  the original property sold  and  a larger one   bought.   This version of the strategy  was  applied by Mela Singh  of Marnaian Kalan  who purchased 12 1/2  acres and a house at Manunui in   1934.    At that stage he had managed to  save only a few hundred pounds from scrub-cutting, but with the assistance  of a  local land-agent he was able to  obtain a sufficient loan from a building society.    He was at least buying at a good time, for land could be obtained at unusually low  prices  as  the slump drew towards its end.    Mela Singh continued  to  cut  scrub  and    slowly  added   to  his  tiny holding.    His  son and    heir  Sarwan   Singh  followed   the same procedure,  dividing  his time between the farm, scrub-cutting and the Manunui  veneer mill.    Eventually  he  sold the farm  in the early 1970s and purchased another property  near Morrinsville.¹¹² This marked yet  another  stage in  the  evolving  pattern.    Since the 1960s Punjabi dairy farmers  have shown  a distinct tendency to favour properties in the district surrounding the small Waikato township  of Whitikahu.     By  moving   to   a Morrinsville farm Sarwan Singh brought himself within this favoured territory.

          This, however, carries us well beyond the period leading up to World War II. I have been able to locate only nine farm purchases by Punjabis during the decade preceding the war. This brought the total up to eleven, or would have done so had they all survived.    Three  were sold during  the  slump, leaving eight

survivors. One of these survivors (Achar Singh) sold up and returned to India in 1940. Market-gardening, which offered an alternative to dairy-farming, attracted even fewer Punjabis. Many Gujaratis took up this occupation (particularly in the Pukekohe area) but only three Punjabis followed their example during the period prior to World War II,¹¹³

          With numbers such as these one can scarcely claim that the dairy-farming phase was in full swing by the time the war began. Obviously it was not, and significant growth in this area had to wait until after the war. The phase had nevertheless begun and some of those who laid a foundation in the pre-war period were well placed to prosper during the post war boom. Phuman Singh was one and his next-door neighbour, Gajja Singh, was another. Gajja Singh of Sultanpur purchased his Manawaru farm in 1932 and eventually passed it on to his nephew and adopted son, Surain Singh. Narain Singh of Jandiala was yet another who prospered. Perhaps the most conspicuous of all these farming successes was that of Mangal Singh from Herian village in Nawanshahr tahsil. The property which he purchased near Otorohanga in 1935 was eventually to become the highly success­ful Mount Cosy jersey stud farm.¹¹⁴

          Even this unusually impressive achievement largely belongs to the post-war years, though the basis was laid during the 1930s, This must be our conclusion as far as dairy-farming by Punjabis is concerned. The 1930s merely provided a beginning with the significant development coming later.¹¹⁵ For most Punjabis in New Zealand up to 1940 the objective remained an enhanced livelihood back in the Punjab.¹¹⁶ The means to this goal continued to be arduous labour, digging ditches in swampy Waikato pastures or clearing gorse and manuka from scrub-infested hills.

¹ Mohommod Taher, 'Asians in New Zealand : a geographical review and interpretation' (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of Auckiand, 1965), pp. 299-3?0. Idem, 'The Asians', in K.W. Thomson and A.D. Trlin (ed.), Immigrants in New Zealand (Palmerston North, 1970), p. 61.

²  A. H. McLintock (ed.), An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand (Wellington, 1966), vol. 1, p. 820, and vol. 3, p.-55. J.V. Leckie, 'They Sleep Standing Up*, p. 190.

³  Wilson (1808-81) had worked under Sleeman as an assistant commissioner during the thagi campaign. He then became a magistrate, first in Cawnpore (Kanpur) and then as magistrate and collector in Moradabad (1841-53) His original retinue comprised four Eurasians and thirteen Indians of unknown origin.    More were brought when he returned to New Zealand from

India in 1859. He settled at the foot of the Port Hills in Christchurch on a property which he named 'Cashmere'. George MacDonald's card-index dictionary of Canterbury biographies (Canterbury Museum, Christchurch), card No. W599

⁴  Ibid. The last of Wilson's Indian servants was believed to be 107 years old when he died in 1902.

⁵  Taher, p. 44n.

⁶  K.L. Gillion, Fiji's Indian Migrants (Melbourne,   962), p. 131.

⁷  Mrs Santa Singh, letter 17/6/76.

⁸  Ints, 33.1, 33.2 and 60.2-3. For further details concerning Phuman Singh and Ganda Singh see Appendix 2.

⁹  The information concerning Indar Singh is derived from a newspaper article by G.H. Roche published in The Waikato Times for 5/2/60, together with a photo of Indar Singh dated 1907.

¹⁰  Captain N.S. Dhillon (Pharwala and London), letter 27/7/81.

¹¹  Munshi Ram was later to spend many years in Fiji and he eventually died there. It is possible that he may have first entered New Zealand from Fiji, but equally it is possible that he came via Australia. It is also quite possible that Harnam Singh Majhail worked for a period in Australia after leaving Hongkong (where he had been a policeman).

¹²  Int. 33.1.

¹³  Int. 33.2.

¹⁴ G.H. Roche, The Waikato Times, 5/2/60.

¹⁵  Int. 33.1. Santa Singh memoir. Santa Singh was himself one of three from the later generation of immigrants who became hawkers, having been introduced to the trade by Harnam Singh Majhail.

¹⁶  Mr Hans Raj Kapoor (Daniel Kapoor letter, 25/10/77). Int. 33.2. Greenstone is nephrite or New Zealand jade, a semi-precious stone which was particularly prized by the Maoris,

¹⁷  Ints. 33.1, 60.2-3.

¹⁸  Int. 60.1.

¹⁹ Letters from Mrs E. Francis (29/8/76) and Messrs J.A. Marm (30/8/7?), Bob Unwin (21/3/77) and H.J. Hart (30/11/77).   See Appendix 2. ²⁰ Ints. 14.2, 20.3. ²¹ The Press, Christchurch, 3/7/20.   Cited by Santi  Budhia,  'A history of

the Indian settlement in Christchurch' (Canterbury University extended essay for M.A. in History, 1978-79), p. .9.

²² Int. 20.1.

²³ Int. 7. Although frequent references have been made to the 'padre's cram-school' in the existing literature and by informants its actual importance may perhaps have been exaggerated. During the years following World War II a similar function was performed for England-bound hopefuls by travel agencies in the Punjab. A part of the service which they continue to offer is   tuition in form-filling and interview technique.

²⁴  Int. 47.

²⁵  Genda Singh's gurdwara education and knowledge of Gurmukhi also made him  something   of an  exception to the general rule.    His grasp of

English evidently proved to be better than that of most of his compatriots as he subsequently became leader of a scrub-cutting gang. A working knowledge of English was an essential qualification for gang leaders.

²⁶  Karam Singh Basi, letter 6/7/77.

²⁷  For the individual returns which together supply the totals listed in the tables see W.H. McLeod (comp.) A List of Punjabi Immigrants in New Zealand (Hamilton, 1984).

²⁸  Census of New Zealand, 1921, Part VI 'Race Aliens' (Wellington, 1923), p. 11. In addition to the 618 so-called 'full blood' Indians 53 'half castes' were returned.    The detailed return was :

Full blood                          Half caste                           Totals

Male   Female   Total          Male   Female   Total         Male   Female   Total

599        19         6l8             23         30         53              622        49         671

Proportion per cent of the population : Male 0.1% female 0.01%, total 0.05% Increase since census of 1916 : Male 455 (272. 46%), female 35 (250%), total 270. 72%)—Ibid, pp. 1!, 12.

²⁹  For this particular point the reports supplied by informants are fre­quently confirmed by attendance lists for meetings of the Country Section of the Indian Association.

³⁰  A Brahman called Siri Ram who was buried in the Taumarunui cemetery on 23/11/18 and Mohar Singh, a Jat from Marnaian Khurd (died 11/12/18). Siri Ram's burial is noted in the records of the Taumarunui Borough Council and  Mohar Singh's death in those of the   Waikato Hospital.

³¹ Fifteen of the immigrants included in the Phillaur figures come from villages along its eastern flank which might arguably be included in the Dhak region.

³²  The Chamars include two Sikhs who would presumably have used the designation  Ramdasia rather than Chamar.   See footnote 7 to chapter 4.

³³  Census of India, 1921, vol. XV (Lahore, 1923), pp. 194, 207, 220. Mark Juergensmeyer, Religion as Social Vision (Berkeley, 1982), chap. 7. For a detailed analysis of casts returns for  'agricultural tribes' in the tahsils of

Jullundur District late in the nineteenth century see RSJD, p. 49.

³⁴ T.G. Kessinger, Vilayatpur 1848-1968 (Berkeley, 1974), p. 95. The fact that Mahtons, Sainis and Khalris are missing from Kessinger's table should occasion no surprise. The Mahtons and Sainis were to be found concen­trated in particular villages, of which Vilayatpur was not one. Khatris could be found scattered through rural Doaba, but they were typically to be found in urban areas.

³⁵ For descriptions of the castes included in table 5 see Denzil Ibbstson, Punjab Castes (Lahore. 1916, repr. Delhi, 1974), pp. 57-93,131-61, 189-95, 222-23.

³⁶ Information concerning Devi Das and Labhu Mai is recorded in docu­ments preserved by the former's sons, now resident in Jammu city. For copies of these documents I am grateful to the Rev. Aziz William of Jammu. I am also grateful to Mr Tirath Ram of Auckland for informing me of the family's existance in Jammu (Int. 43). The store was sold in 1924. Mr Karam Singh Basi informs me that it was purchased by Fakiria Manak of Manak village and Munsha Singh of Bundala (letter 26/10/77).

³⁷  Satish Saberwal, Mobile Men (New Delhi, 1976), pp. 13, 19, 104.

³⁸  Parminder Kaur Bhachu, 'Marriage and dowry among selected East African Sikh families in the United Kingdom' (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1981), pp. 85-92. Dr Bhachu's sample consists exclu­sively of Ramgarhia Sikhs who have re-migrated from East Africa to the United Kingdom.

³⁹  For a description and discussion of the Ramgarhia caste see Bhachu, chaps. 3-4; and W.H. McLeod, 'Ahluwalias and Ramgarhias : two Sikh castes' in South Asia no. 4 (October 1974), pp. 78-90.

⁴⁰  Kessinger, p. 163.

⁴¹  Joala Singh Belling, letter 29/1/76.

⁴²  Mr K. R. Powar, letter 10/3/76.

⁴³  Babu Ram Powar (Khera), Sundar Ram Shinmar (Haphowal), Chintu Ram, Labhu Ram, Dit Ram (all from Raipur Dabba) and Gangu Ram (Rurki). K.R. Powar, undated letter June/July 1976, reporting information received from his mother Mahon Ram (widow of Babu Ram Powar). The group which left India in 1910 also included one member who remained in Fiji (Nathu Ram of Khera).

⁴⁴  See table 1, note 6.

⁴⁵ The United States was certainly the intended destination of the Chamar group which left in 1910.   K.R. Powar, letter 10/3/76.

⁴⁶  Joala Singh Belling reported that when he reached Auckland with the group which included Kahan Singh he too attempted the form— and failed (letter 29/1/76). He returned 29 April 1917 having meanwhile acquired the necessary skill at a Fiji 'night school' (presumably the cram school).

⁴⁷  The two Majhails (Bhagat Singh Majhail and Ganda Singh) and at least one of the Malwais (Thaman Singh) who entered.1 New Zealand from Fiji

during this period had been policemen in Fiji. Bhagat Singh and Bachint Singh of Kharodi were also policemen in Fiji before moving on to New Zealand.   Ints. 20.2, 35.

⁴⁸  M.A. Farooqi, letter 7/9/77, reporting information supplied by Hafizur Rahman, son of Vazir Ali.

⁴⁹  Ints. 42, 52.2. K.L. Gillion, Fiji's Indian Migrants (Melbourne, 1962), pp. 131-32.

⁵⁰  Ganga Singh, also of Karnana, is said to have assisted some prospective migrants to Fiji. Int. 42. K.L. Gillion, The Fiji Indians (Canberra, 1977), p. 115, Swaran (Warren) Ganga Singh, letter 26/4/79.

⁵¹  KamalKant Prasad, 'The Gujaratis of Fiji, 1900-1945', (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1978), pp. 90-91.

⁵²  Three of the six from Jullundur City were members of the established Kapoor family.

⁵³ Ints. 20.1, 23.1,46.

⁵⁴  I was permitted to read Phuman Singh's diary by his son, the late Mr Gulzar (Goldie) Singh.

⁵⁵  See p. 94.

⁵⁶  Karam Singh Basi and others in his group were told of the Hindu farm by Sahib Singh of District Sialkot whom they happened to meet in Singapore. Sahib Singh, who had been in New Zealand since before 1910, was on his way back to India.   Int. 20.3.

⁵⁷  Harnam Singh, the father of Phuman Singh of Rurki, entered New Zealand at the age of 92 in 1936. He died at Te Kuiti in 1947, aged 103. King Country Chronicle, 16/3/47, p. 5.

⁵⁸  See W.H. McLeod (comp.), A List of Punjabi Immigrants in New Zealand (Hamilton, 1984), p. 28.

⁵⁹  See section 3.6.

⁶⁰  The register is held by the Immigration Section of the Department of Labour, Wellington.

⁶¹  For an account of the Country Section see section 3.6 and p. 124.

⁶²  I owe this information to his cousin, Bakshi Balwant Singh Mal of Suva.    Int. 54.

⁶³  Loc cit., 'Hindoos', p. 206.

⁶⁴  For further details see McLeod, p. 28.

⁶⁵  The exception was Dr Baldev Singh Share.   See Appendix 2.

⁶⁶  The following immigrants from the 1912-21 generation worked for lengthy periods as hawkers : Santa Singh (Jandiala), Hakim Singh Jhooty (Khushalpur), and Barakat Ali Khan (village not known). Dolatram Joshi (Kultham Abdullahshah) also worked as a hawker for a limited period. Ints. 14.1,29.1, 33.1.

⁶⁷  Winter shearing is a recent introduction.

⁶⁸ One informant insisted with considerable emphasis that Punjabis would never accept employment in a freezing works.   Int. 32.    The record generally

supports his claim. I have found only two Punjabi freezing-workers (one Jat and one Chamar), both of them in very recent post-war times. Freezing-works are large abattoirs where mutton and beef carcasses are frozen for export overseas.

⁶⁹  Punjabis did not move south to the flax area around Foxton in the Manawatu district. The Indians who cut flax in this area were presumably Gujaratis.

⁷⁰  In April 1976 Mr Kabal Ram Powar showed me the site of a camp on his Pokeno farm from which the Mangatawhiri swamp was worked and in which his father Babu Ram Powar and once lived. Across the swamp the old flax factory could still be seen, used now as a farm shed. In May 1975 Mr Harbans Singh Randhawa took me down Proctors Road and showed me the site of the camp which served the Orini swamp workers. In January 1977 I visited the old flax-factory at Kaihere in which Punjabis had once worked, now a disused shed but with some of the old machinery still in it.

⁷¹  The two volumes, destined for the Morrinsville museum, were still in Patetonga when I visited the township in January 1977. I am grateful to Mr Ken Hunter and Mr Frank Coulter for letting me borrow them. In the references which follow L designates the ledger and Corr. the corres­pondence copy book.

⁷²  See also Corr. 40-!.

⁷³  L15, L111. Harman Singh was Harnam Singh Nagra and Meha Singh was his relative Mihan Singh. Both were from Jabowal village in Nawan-shahr tahsil. After the Ngarua Flax Company closed down the two cousins worked for Mr Hunter on his farm at Hoeotainui. Eventually they pur­chased their own farm in partnership at Waitakaruru.

⁷⁴  L19, L25, L29.

⁷⁵  Hazara Singh was almost certainly Hazari Singh 'Chhota' of Achharvval village in Garhshankar tahsil. Chancel Singh was Chaichal Singh of Mansurpur in Nawanshahr tahsil. The latter, a Dhariwal Jat, was one of the more memorable 'Hindoos' according to Mr Ken Hunter. Like many of the Punjabis he was fond of horses and he is still remembered in Pate­tonga for having purchased a trotter from his employer and tied bells on its legs. He was known locally as 'Charlie' and appears as such in the cartoon reproduced in McLeod, A List of Punjabi Immigrants in New Zealand.

⁷⁶  Nikka Singh was unusual in that he preferred to work by himself, not with a gang. He is remembered in Patetonga as the only Punjabi flax-cutter who mixed freely with the local Europeans. Int 38. My informant added that the other Punjabis were well behaved and aroused no resentment amongst the local people Nikka Singh left Patetonga in 1935 and eventually returned to India in 1963. Int. 50. He was also untypical in that he never married.

⁷⁷  He claims to have been the  best  drain-digger in the business.   Int  50

One of Taher's informants claimed that a Sikh 'could dig a drain 30-33 feet long and 5 feet deep with 3 feet bottom, and thus earn 30 shillings a day'.   Taher, op. cit., p. 162n.

⁷⁸ For a vivid description of the area see James Cowan, The Old Frontier (Te Awamutu, 1922), pp. 7-8.

⁷⁹  The King Country, or Rohe Potae, is a large tract of land in the western central North Island. Te Awamutu lies a short distance beyond its northern boundary and Taumarunui is situated near its centre. The territory acquired its European name when Tawhiao, the Maori King, took refuge there following the land wars of 1863-72. A. H. McLintock (ed.), An Encyclo­paedia of New Zealand vol. 2 (Wellington, 1966), p. 223.

⁸⁰  Manunui appears as Maranui in Ray Grover's novel Another Man's Role (Auckland, 1967) where the township and its surroundings are well described on pages 19 and 71.

⁸¹  John Broomfieid, 'C.F, Andrews in New Zealand', New Zealand Journal of History 7.1 (April 1973), p. 72.

⁸²  Int. 28.1.

⁸⁸ Int. 28.1. The four were Banta Ram Singh, Bachint Singh, Dhanpat Singh and Nagina Singh. All four were from the Mahilpur area in Garh-shankar tahsil. They were cutting scrub in the Ongarue/Ohura area. According to Karam Singh Basi (letter 18/11/77) Dhanpat Singh and Nagina Singh worked in Tonga as well as Fiji before coming to New Zealand.

⁸⁴  See section 3.6.

⁸⁵  Int. 32.

⁸⁶  Int. 7.

⁸⁷ Ints. 7, 14.2, 32.

⁸⁸  In 1935 Indar Singh Randhawa organised a gang of approximately thirty men who worked on the Fernie property until 1938.    Int. 14.1.

⁸⁹  Int. 39.

⁹⁰  Manuka (Leptospermum) is also known as ti-tree.

⁹¹  The association was founded in Taumarunui on 17 April 1926. Minutes were kept for the association/branch from 1926 until 1939, although it is not certain that these have all survived. Copies of those which do exist, together with some miscellaneous papers such as the 1926 member­ship register, are held by the Hocken Library in Dunedin. They are variously written in English, Urdu, and Punjabi.

⁹²  J. V. Leckie, 'They Sleep Standing Up', pp, 633, 640.

⁹³  Proceedings of the 48th Annual Conference of the New Zealand Indian Central Association held in New Plymouth on 13 April 1974, p. 11.

⁹⁴  Leckie, pp. 576-630.

⁹⁵  Karam Singh Basi. letter 16/12/77.

⁹⁶  Mr Karam Singh Basi also reported an unminuted meeting which was

held during this period in the Marton Town Hall. Ibid. Marton would be easier to reach than Fordell for  those who  had moved onto the hill

country west of Taihape and Hunterville.

⁹⁷  The saw-millers were the three Kapoor brothers, Firoz Khan, Milkhi Ram Fermah, and Bhagat Singh (Bhagata). The store-keepers were the Kapoor brothers (stores in Taringamotu, Kakahi, National Park, and Tokaanu); the partnership of Labhu Ram and Devi Dass in Rotorua; their successors Munsha Singh Basi and Fakiria Manak; Bhagat Singh in Kopaki; and Tara Chand in Kakahi.

⁹⁸  Int. 35. The group included Banta Ram Singh, Mela Singh and Banta Singh 'Chaura'.

⁹⁹  Share-milking is an arrangement whereby the owner of a dairy farm entrusts the entire operation of the farm to a manager who receives an agreed share of the net income in lieu of wages.

loo For a rare  but explicit example see Quick March (magazine of the New Zealand Returned  Soldiers Association), 11 October 1920, p. 34.

¹⁰¹  Hans Raj Kapoor (letter from Daniel Kapoor, 25/10/77).

¹⁰²  The farm which is situated in the Orakau riding of Waipa county, comprised allotment no. 117 of the Puniu Parish. The property fronts onto Allen Road and runs southwards to the Puniu Stream. (It is the second allotment westwards from the intersection with Brotherhood Road.) The purchase was registered in the name of Harmen Singh. I owe this infor­mation, together with all survey and sale details concerning Indar Singh's 'Hindu farm', to the Assistant Clerk of Waipa County, Mr. B. G. Piesse, who kindly consulted the county records for me.

¹⁰³  There is a remote possibility that there had been an earlier 'Hindu farm'. The comment from Quick March cited above claims : There is a dairy farm of a little over a hundred acres not far from my holding, and this farm has just been sold by a syndicate of eight Hindus, after a short tenure, at a profit (it is reputed) of £l,000 or so.' Loc cit., 11/10/20, p. .4. The anonymous correspondent signs himself 'Rohepotae', a name which clearly locates him within the appropriate area. The 'Hindu farm' of Indar Singh and his three associates was, however, sold after 21 August 1922. Mr Karam Singh Basi of Kihikihi took me to the place which he had known as the 'Hindu farm' and it proved to be the one which the records show to have been Indar Singh's property. The Quick March claim remains a mystery.

¹⁰⁴  Allotments 47 and 60-61 of the Puniu Parish, within the Orakau riding of Waipa county. Allotments 60 and 61 front onto the road with 47 adjoining their rear boundary. Mr Karam Singh Basi reports that allotment 47 was swampy when Indar Singh owned the property.   Int. 20-2.

¹⁰⁵  Ints. 20.3, 22.1,23.2, 24.

106  The three were known as Samundu, Nandu and Prema. All three were Jats. There were two immigrants from Sultanpur named Nand Singh, both of them Dhariwal Jats.   The 'Hindu farm' Nandu was the one who

remained unmarried Surprisingly little is known of Indar Singh Mahasha, a Rajput who is variously said to have come from Patiala state or 'near Delhi'. He acquired the name 'Mahasha' because he claimed to be an adherent of the Arya Samaj. Shortly after selling his farm he left New Zealand and did not return.

¹⁰⁷  The information concerning Munshi Ram derives from the son of his first marriage, Mr. Thomas Ram of Taringamotu, who was interviewed on my behalf by Mr. Santokh Singh Bhullar of Taumaruni in July 1979. According to his son Munshi Ram could speak Maori fluently and possessed a reasonable grasp of English. Mr Thomas (Tomi) Ram subsequently earned distinction as a Maori warden and was awarded the MBE in 1979. As this indicates, he has identified with his mother's antecedents, not with those of his father. He did not report the actual location of the farm, but it was presumably in the King Country. Munshi Ram subsequently remarried. His second wife was an Indian woman from Fiji and it was to Fiji that he eventually returned with her.

¹⁰⁸  Int. 14.1. The third farm, situated near Cambridge in the Waikato, subsequently passed to Harnam Singh's son, Jarnail Singh. During the ten or eleven years between his second and third farms Harnam Singh took the usual labouring jabs favoured by Punjabis.

¹⁰⁹  Ints.   , 26.1.

¹¹⁰  Phuman Singh's original farm at Manawaru passed to his eldest son Mahima Singh (Das Mahima). The second farm (800 acres of mixed farming land near Te Kuiti, half of it freehold and half leasehold Maori land) later passed to his second son, Gulzar Singh.   Int. 26.1.

¹¹¹  Phuman Singh himself stressed the importance of the strategy (Int. 26.1) and has demonstrated it in practice by assisting his three sons both in the original purchase and in the subsequent development of each farm. The shift towards sheep-farming marked by the second farm was later continued and the third son, Mr. Gurdial (Guru) Singh, now owns a prosperous sheep-farm in the Owairaka Valley near Te Awamutu. This is most unusual amongst the Punjabi farmers in New Zealand. Phuman Singh's son-in-law Mr Surain Singh from Sultanpur, has assisted his son and four sons-in-law in the acquiring of dairy-farms, a particularly conspicuous example of the strategy. This family also demonstrates another of its features. While working towards the purchase of their own farms young Punjabis have often taken jobs in local dairy factories. Ints. 40.1-3.

¹¹²  Int. 35.

¹¹³  The three were Banta Singh of Kharodi, Juwala Singh of Rasulpur and Prem Singh of Bhandal (with his son Babu Singh). Market-gardening, like dairy-farming, promised reasonable rewards for low capital investment plus long hours (with family assistance). It was, however, unappealing to most Punjabis. This may have been partly because it demonstrably aroused Pakeha fears, as with the White New Zealand League of 1925-26.

Its lack of appeal can also be explained on traditional grounds in that it is a low-status occupation in the Punjab. For Banta Singh and Juwala Singh, however, it proved to be a soundly remunerative occupation.

¹¹⁴  For a brief account of the life of Mangal Singh see W.H. McLeod, 'Mangal Singh of Otorohanga', Art of Living III.4 (April 1976), pp. 9-10, 43; repr.   in The Sikh Sansar 6.1 (March 1977), pp. 16-17.

¹¹⁵   For an estimate of dairy-farming success amongst Punjabis in New Zealand in 1964 see Taher, pp. 198-201.

¹¹⁶  Those who evidently succeeded in this regard include Kahan Singh of Raipur Dabba and his son Harbans Singh Pahilwan, Nikka Singh of Rasulpur, and Gurdas Singh Johal of Jandiala. I owe this impression to visits made in October and November 1978- Others who are said to have prospered were Hari Singh Gill of Chak Bilgan and Indar Singh of Randhawa Masandan. There were doubtless more who similarly benefited from savings made in New Zealand.