Hopkins Collection: Cigarette card of a surf boat

Photograph of a surf boat pulled up on the shore with a number of men standing alongside and a horse harnessed to it. A cigarette card - part of the W D & H O Wills New Zealand Early Scenes & Maori Life series. Photographer unidentified.

Inscriptions: Verso - centre - Surf Boat - Early New Plymouth - When the increasing tide of early settlers from England found the region round Cook Straits becoming congested they pushed further north. At New Plymouth, the absence of any sheltered harbour made it necessary to use surf boats for the landing of passengers and cargo. Between the open roadstead and the beach was a wide strip of sometimes turbulent water. Now an up-to-date wharf accommodates the largest vessels from overseas, and the surf boat and its attendant "duckings" are matters of ancient history.

Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).