"... While Danish emigration westward, to North America, is well documented, this is not, to the same degree, true of emigration to the opposite side of the world ... We have chosen to let Peter Birklundd's article introduce the series of contributions. He deals with the purely statistical aspect of emigration from its organised beginnings around 1871 up until around 1970 ... This brings us to Poula Christie's "Danish yesterdays in New Zealand". The author is a New Zealander whose Danish parents emigrated to New Zealand in 1907. Poula Christie gives a vivid autobiographical account of the lives of Danish immigrants in the first difficult years ... The Danish church became an important meeting place for Danish immigrants who wished to maintain their ties to the Danish language and to their heritage. In "O Lord, guide my feet" Dorte Christensen concerns herself with the Danish church in New Zealand which is strongly influenced by the Home Mission. The article focuses in particular on the Danish clergyman, Mads Christensen, who served the church in Mauriceville for many years ... Three of the book's contributions are based on letters from those who emigrated. Three very different destinies are vividly depicted in these letters sent home to Denmark ... Ingeborg Stuckenberg (1866-1904) travelled to New Zealand in 1903. Her letters from the journey itself are of a high literary quality intended for publication, while the private letters ... provide a touching glimpse of Ingeborg's longing for her dear ones ... Viggo Rasmussen .. letters from 1874-1928 ... a glimpse of an ordinary young man's life as an immigrant with constantly changing jobs ... The last collection of letters dates from 1863-1887. The letter writer is the Danish photographer Niels Peter Schourup who established his own photographic studio in Christchurch in 1874 ... As in many other places in the world, the Danes were pioneers in the dairy industry. Erik Helmer Pedersen deals with this subject in his article "Danish agricultural technology and New Zealand butter" ... What did the Danes who emigrated really know about New Zealand? Jorgen Wurtz Sorenson reports on this in his article "New workers paradise". He illustrates how the Danes imagined New Zealand to be a Paradise, not only for labourers, but also for women, thanks to the New Zealand government's liberal laws and principles. New Zealand became a model for the Social-Liberals in Denmark ... In the final contribution, Ivo Holmquist concentrates on both Swedish and Danish immigration in his description of the relationship between Scandinavia and New Zealand from the time of the first Europeans up until the present ...." -- Preface (p. 9-11)