The photograph below is from our Heritage Images, and shows the line as it neared completion. Two tunnels made up half the deviation, and the NZ Government Public Works Department took on the project, beginning around 1928. Public Works camps were constructed to house around 300 men, although numbers shrank during the depression as the government made job cuts.

'Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries AWNS-19350724-52-1

A second book is Half A World Away: Eastbourne in Wartime 1899-1928 by Julia Stuart. As the title suggests, it covers war time, and has some informative appendices: service records of Eastbourne residents and people with links to the area, deaths in the First World War, and folk mentioned in the book but with no direct link to Eastbourne.
In 1900, the eastern bays of Wellington Harbour were a mix of baches, small settlements, and day trippers would swarm there on weekends and public holidays.
From our Heritage Images, the photo below is from the Auckland Weekly News in 1913: the caption reads, "A suburb running its own municipal ferries: Eastbourne, on the Eastern side of Wellington Harbour."

'Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19131030-41-2 '

And from April 1933, comes a glorious page of photos from an Easter Gala held to raise funds for the East Harbour Distress Fund to aid the unemployed. The papers ran progress reports on the lead up to the event, and according to the Evening Post, "Every care is being taken by the organiser and his staff to see that expenses are kept down to the minimum. The money handled is subject to Government audit, and before any item of expenditure is incurred it is very carefully scrutinized."
Even in the weeks beforehand, there were fundraising events from dances, bridge parties, ping-pong tournaments, garden parties, and sports events. On the weekend itself, Wellingtonians converged in their thousands via ferry boats and buses to join in, with donkey rides for the children, fancy dress and even a decorated bike contest. Maybe one of your Wellington relatives is in the pic below!


Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19330419-35-1

Joanne.

"For a country devoid of possessions, deprived of family, stripped of identity and sentenced to hard labour in an unfamiliar land, a tattoo provided a link with what had been lost."
Tattoos were once the mark of crims and the navy, and indeed it is interesting to learn that in colonial Australia, convicts viewed their tattoos as a kind of link to their old world.
A new book to come into Auckland Libraries is this intriguing background on the tattoos of convicts in Australia - Convict Tattoos by Simon Barnard.
Many convicts came from the UK tattooed, and these were recorded as they arrived in Australia, as a way of identifying the individual.
Names and dates were popular, but also initials, symbolic images of religious belief and patriotism, along with good old decoration. Both men and women were tattooed and one of the most popular images was the anchor, often used to signify hope, and, with the added cross, hope in salvation.  Convict Sydney Harris had the word 'hope', an anchor, his initials, and the year of his conviction tattooed.
Indeed, those who didn't possess tattoos posed more of a challenge for those in authority, who would list physical details in the register of convicts in the Black Books.
One prisoner, Isaac Comer, had his tattoos written about in The Mercury (Hobart) July 5 1871 as follows:
"Yesterday a prisoner named Isaac Comer, who has a string of convictions against his name quite appalling, but who after a long prison life has been at liberty since 1857, has his body nearly covered with marks indelibly tatooed into the skin. The following almost incredible list of such marks should, we imagine, leave no doubt as to his identity should he at any future time be required; - on his right arm - man smoking a pistol; SC; woman with glass; Jane Bell; woman and man smoking a pipe (etc)
It is possible, according to the author, that once in the colonies, because of the surveillance on the convicts via tattoo, getting tattooed wasn't as popular as it was back home.
This is a fascinating and easy read, and puts a whole new perspective on the significance of tattoos in the past. There are heaps of images, although the images of pieces of tattooed skin may, for the squeamish of us, be best skipped over - especially those pieces not attached to an actual body(!)
Note that there are borrowable copies within Auckland Libraries.
Joanne
Central Research

For instance, with regard to Otago we have a series of books that were published in the 1980s covering events in Otago 1901-35 titled Otago Cavalcade … The series is divided into approximately five-year sections and are filled with photographs from the Otago Witness and Otago Daily Times newspapers.  While the reproduction of photographs is not always wonderful, they are still worth looking at as they include buildings no longer in existence among other things. The war years naturally cover events occurring at home and overseas.  Other events included that are not Otago-specific, are the funeral of King George V, the Boer War, Napier earthquake, and the return of Scott’s Terra Nova to New Zealand.  However, the majority of images are relevant to Otago, such as schools, churches, celebrations, buildings and homes of note, floods in the region, delegates at conferences, to day-to-day life.

A great find for those interested in Otago. Check out the catalogue for a complete list of our holdings of the Otago Cavalcade - the good news is there are borrowable copies so you can take home an issue, and have a good read.