Creator unknown :Album of voyage to New Zealand and Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

Record of a trip by sea from England to New Zealand, and includes travels in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) on the return journey.

Begins with photographs of the ship SS Austral, passengers on deck, and a view of a lighthouse at the end of a breakwater taken probably as the ship left Plymouth Harbour. There are views from the ship of Cape St Vincent, Gibraltar, and approaching Marseilles.

A section of photographs (which may include places in Marseilles) are of Italy. There are views of Rome and Pompei. A section of photographs taken while the ship passed through the Suez Canal includes women passengers on deck as well as the canal and adjacent countryside. Views of ships and sail boats in the Red Sea and passengers playing deck games.

On reaching Australia the ship stopped at Freemantle, and there is an Adelaide street scene. But most of the Australian photographs are of Melbourne and Hobart.

The ship's first port of call in New Zealand was Port Chalmers, and a group of photographs include Dunedin, its rural surroundings seen from the sea, Invercargill Post Office, and Bluff. The ship then sailed north to Lyttelton, and there are four pages of photographs of Christchurch and Banks Peninsular. In particular there is a visit to Port Levy which as well as landscape views includes groups of Maori visited by three men on horseback.

One page of five photographs shows men handling sacks of freshly harvested cocksfoot grass seed in a recently cleared pastoral landscape covered with the remains of burnt trees.

The next group of six photographs show two teenaged boys on a camping trip. There are images of their tent, of cooking with billies, eating a meal laid out on a tree stump, and the boys playing at the edge of a stream.

Three photographs show an impressive house and garden belonging to a Mr Joslin.

The following eleven pages of photographs record a journey through parts of the North Island. This begins with a trip up the Whanganui River to Pipiriki, and then continuing by coach from Pipiriki to Taupo. Photographs include views of the coach on the road, of the road passing through native forest, and the journey across the Volcanic Plateau where the passengers stopped for a tea break. There are a few photographs of Taupo and the lake. These include one of the meeting house Tikiotetamamutu at the Spa Hotel. There are 16 photographs taken at one or more unidentified thermal areas, and others of the Hooker Falls and Aratiatia Rapids. There are two photographs of a house with a large gothic styled "fortified" tower at one end.

The New Zealand photographs are followed by a return to Australia on the way to Ceylon (Sri Lanka). There is one view of a Melbourne street, and eight of Sydney Harbour.

The final eight pages are of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) beginning with views of the street life of Colombo. This is followed by a trip to Kandy, a visit to a bungalow in the country, a game of golf, and views of a tea plantation and tea pickers.

The Sri Lankan section, and the album, ends with 13 photographs of the South African prisoner of war camp at Diyatalawa in the southern part of the central Highlands of the country. This housed 5,000 of the 26,000 Boer prisoners of war that the British shipped offshore during the South African War (1899-1902).

Source of title - Title supplied by Library

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

Provenance: Purchased from Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh, 2010.