Some of the first Irish came with the
Royal New Zealand Fencibles who were British army veterans given land for service. Around half of them were
Irish Catholics. Until 1852 the Irish comprised just under 15% of New Zealand immigrants. A Dublin University Magazine described New Zealand as 'the most recent, remotest, and least civilised of our colonies'; the voyage cost over four times that of crossing the Atlantic to America. Immigration from the region of
Leinster was common from 1840 towards 1852. Most Irish immigrants to New Zealand during the Irish diaspora that followed the
Irish Famine of 1845–1852 were indigenous Irish from Munster and indirect emigrants from Australia during the gold rushes. In the early twentieth century immigration from the region of
Ulster increased. This "reflected the preference for Protestants among New Zealand immigration authorities". To make New Zealand more attractive as a place of settlement for migrants, "fudging" of statistics occurred emphasising homogeneity (using the phrase '98.5 percent British'). Place of birth was used to circumvent ethnicity, "to conceal the numbers of other population groups, particularly the Irish and Chinese" ==Politics==