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Story: Scandinavians

Bishop Ditlev Gothard Monrad

Bishop Ditlev Gothard Monrad

Bishop Monrad (a former prime minister of Denmark) arrived in New Zealand in 1866 with his family. They were accompanied by a handful of hardworking young Danes who helped him clear bush at Karere in Manawatū. Their hands became ‘mercilessly puffed up by innumerable mosquito bites’. These immigrants were the first in a long line of Scandinavian woodsmen and women to feel the bite of the swamp dweller.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, S. P. Andrew Collection (PAColl-3739)

Reference: 1/1-018550-F

by Max Kleinsorg

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Carl Walrond, Scandinavians – 1642–1870: first arrivals, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/283/bishop-ditlev-gothard-monrad (accessed 10 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 September 2024.

Comments

Fay Lewis
20 July 2023
I believe my childrens' great Grandfather may have been with Bishop Monrad when he came to New Zealand from the Faeroe Islands. Jens Sigvardsen/Sivertsen born 1843, in Nes, Eusturoy, Faeroes, married in Auckland 1877, timber worker. Have you any information about him please?
David Cochrane
31 October 2022
I believe that my Great Grandfather , Henrick West was one of the young Danes that came with him to New Zealand