item details
NamePetone foreshore
ProductionWilliam Hall Raine; photographer; circa 1914; Petone
Classificationblack-and-white negatives, group portraits
Materialssheet glass, silver, photographic plates
Dimensions3.25, 4.5
Registration NumberA.004856
Overview
This extract originally appeared in New Zealand Photography Collected: 175 Years of Photography in Aotearoa (Te Papa Press, 2025) on page 146.
Fifteen hundred motor vehicles were imported to New Zealand in 1911, double the number of 1910, which was in turn almost double that of 1909. This was also the year that horse numbers peaked at 400,000, but from there it was all downhill for the horse as a mode of transport. Part of the rapid increase in cars had to do with the Model-T Ford, seen here at Petone around 1914. It was relatively cheap to buy, reliable and could be put to many uses.