Railways album 8

Album of photographs of scenes, advertisements and posters advertising rail and ferry travel in New Zealand.

The advertisements were used in The New Zealand Railways Magazine, and the posters were displayed at Railways Ticket Offices. The posters, and advertisements using "Mr Goodseat" were part of their campaign to show the advantages of travel by rail. The artist for many of these signed himself 'Matthews'.

Scenic photographs also show some aspects of life in New Zealand, including a series on the flax industry with harvesting, drying and processing the fibres. Another group shows a farm, including a house made of corrugated iron, with sacking covering the windows; land clearing and ploughing with horses, draining the land, and a pile of harvested kumara; and several photographs of a man panning for gold, and inspecting pieces of rock with a magnifying glass; a group of men on horseback with dogs setting out on a hunt, and a cage full of pheasants before being released for the shoot.

Pages 78-81 show activities associated with the mail service. They include people buying stamps in a post office, men sorting mail, large bags prepared for out-of-town delivery (some bags being delivered to the inter-island ferry for transport to the South Island). From there they show postmen emerging from the Chief Post Office with their satchels ready for local delivery, with the final scenes of delivery into a household letterbox, and one of a woman being handed her mail at the door.

There are a number of much earlier photographs in the album, including pictures of Major Ropata, Sir Donald McLean, John Webster and F E Maning, and one of Te Aro in 1857.

Advertisements included "Buy New Zealand made goods, for the children's sake. Cut these cords. Unemployment"; an advertisement for Hannah's footwear using a photograph of The Mystery train" (advertising a trip to Paraparaumu Beach, and another to Ohau). Several photographs show large groups of people who travelled on the Mystery Train, picnicking at the beach at Paraparaumu, boiling up a huge billy, and a child in a backpack on her father's back).

Quantity: 1 album(s) Album(s).

Physical Description: Album with canvas cover, green spine, entitled `Miscellaneous Book C3"; 39 x 56 cm

Some items have come loose from pages and have been placed, in enclosures, between the pages they were formerly attached to: pages 76-77, 82-83 and 96-97.