Franz Josef Glacier - South Westland - Travel Poster - circa 1930s

 

 Franz Josef Glacier, South Westland, Travel Poster, circa 1930s

Visit the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers before global warming melts them both away. 

Some fond memories of this part of the country come to mind. One, participation in an environmental protection conference at Fox or Franz in the 70s to protect the native beech forest from logging. It is of some personal satisfaction to know that eventually some of it did get protected. Small individual efforts by many can cumulatively result in progress. Is there still time for the same with respect to countering global warming?

Another memory: staying at one of the hotels like the one pictured above in the dying days of the Government's Tourist Hotel Corporation. It was quaintly 1950s or 60s in decor in the late 1980s, not by conscious design but benign indifference. Somehow it was like walking into one of these travel posters. A way of living the past.

Technically, the scene pictured above is from a travel brochure rather than a travel poster.

Cattle Droving, South Westland - Travel poster - circa 1930s

 

 Travel poster, Cattle Droving, South Westland, artist Marcus King, circa 1930s

Cattle droving on a fine South Westland day as the Herefords cross a frigid, glacial-fed river.

No, Jayne: not South West Island which would be Tasmania, right? And we'll have none of yer Drover's Run, McLeod's Daughters stuff on this side of the Tazzie, thank you very much! ;)

TEAL Flying Boat - Mosgiel Woollen MIlls ad, 1939

 

 Mosgiel Woolen Mills advertisement,  New Zealand Railways magazine, July 1 1939

While not a travel poster, the above magazine ad for Mosgiel knitwear seeks to make the connection between the state of the art TEAL flying boat of 1939 and the stylish woollen knitwear.

The intellectual property lawyer within Kuaka wonders if Mosgiel properly arranged licensing of the TEAL flying boat image and HMV's (His Master's Voice") intellectual property - the close reference to "His Master's Knitwear". Methinks, probably not. Just a little borrowing. Today there'd be a posse of lawyers swarming all over this ad cranking up the billable hours. 

Much pleasanter to gaze reflectively out over the harbour thinking of the TEAL flying boat making a landing in Evan's Bay, Wellington... like this view:

TEAL flying boat Aotearoa landing in Wellington Harbour bringing Brtiish and Australian representatives to the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition, 19 January 1940.

Union Airways Travel Poster - Main Trunk New Zealand - mid 1930s

 

Union Airways travel poster, circa mid 1930s

Union Airways, a subsidiary of the Union Steamship Company, commenced operation on the Main Trunk Route - which left Auckland out off the main trunk! Non-Aucklanders will be appreciative of this, no doubt. Just desserts and all that. Apparently, it was considered that the express rail service on the North Island Main Trunk line meant that air transport could not compete effectively with rail. How wrong they were in the long run. 

Union Steamship, the Southern Octopus as it has been called, extended its tentacles out to regional routes as well but within a relatively few years it was clear that a shipping line had no comparative advantage in operating an air service.

De Havilland airliner Karoro (gull) being loaded at Palmerston North airport, circa 4 November 1936.

  

De Havilland DH86 Express biplane, Kotuku, circa 1939, possibly at Rongotai, Wellington (according to Turnbull library, but I'm not convinced!)

Creasture Comforts...

Interior of an aircraft possibly a De Havilland Express in the 1930s.

New Zealand Centennial Exhibition, Wellington 1939 - 1940

 

 New Zealand Centennial Exhibition sticker, 1929-1940

The First Labour Government, elected in 1935, saw the centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1940 as an opportunity to celebrate New Zealand's national identity. But by September 1939 with the British declaration of war against the Germans, New Zealanders once again found that "where Britain goes, we go". It was a bitter pill to swallow decades later in the early 1970s, that where Britain went - the European Common Market, New Zealand couldn't. So much for dumb loyalty.

When the Sesquicentennial rolled around in 1990, New Zealand had moved on. The event itself turned out to be a damp squib. Assigned an area along the Wellington waterfront a free market Labour government 180 degrees turned around from the ethos of the First Labour government put up a half-hearted effort to celebrate given its policy platform of full cost recovery, outsourcing to the private sector, and the contentious public debate of the continuing role of the Treaty in modern New Zealand life. Attendance was abysmal. Auckland got the Commonwealth Games.

Some more advertising images for the 1940 Centennial - click on images for larger view:

 

 Travel poster pitched to overseas tourists

 

For those who wanted amusement rides - a map of the Fun of the Fair, 1940

New Zealand For Your Next Holiday - Maori Girl - Travel Poster - circa 1927-29

 

New Zealand travel poster circa 1927-1929

Why not weave a nice harakeke (flax) kete on your next holiday? Indeed, why not travel to New Zealand to do so? C'mon you spuds, off the couch, pack a bag, leave the game consoles & 'puters behind, forego the extreme sports, and get in some mahi raranga (art of basket weaving).

You can start with the disposable dinner plates. Yes, throwaways, but 100% recyclable! No need to drag from place to place for the busy traveler. And so much less expensive than a nice carved wooden bowl.

New Zealand - Wonderland of the Pacific - Travel Poster - circa 1930s

Wonderland of the Pacific, Travel poster, circa 1930s

Then there is the exploitation of Maoritanga and womanhood in the travel poster. More difficult in the 2010s for the "Madmen" (Madison Avenue men for those not acquainted with the TV series) to appropriate these cultural territories, not that they don't try. Any nominations for the equivalent of Madison Avenue in the New Zealand context of 1930s or today?

Surprisingly this young wahine with bared right shoulder enticing the tourist to come see all the "wonders" including her good self prominently in the foreground is untroubled to have a geyser erupting (Freudian reference here?) a fraction to her right while her toes are nicely being boiled or perchance just warmed in the hot pool to her left. Yes, you art buffs, I lack "perspective".