Ballot at the Government Statistician's Office
The first conscription ballot under the Military Service Act of 1916 occurred on 16 November 1916, and as a local paper reported: "No one else was present which had not work to do in connection with the ballot, save for two photographers and a Cinematograph operator. Nowadays everything is recorded for the moving pictures, and the first ballot... was no exception." (p.270)
The cameraman was Sydney B. Taylor, then Government Cinematographer, and the film moves "in stages through the setting out of the 194 drawers containing the names in alphabetical order of the men of the 1st Division... being positioned by clerks on two long tables. Each drawer was balloted so that none of the female clerks... could anticipate the names that she would administer. [Malcolm] Fraser, the government statistician and [S. E] McCarthy, the magistrate, are conscious of the historic nature of the event and stiffly perform to camera, as do the young male clerks whose work it seems was to position the drawers, while their female colleagues type the call-up lists." (p.272).
The film also features rare images of Harry Holland at the time editor of the Maoriland Worker, and later Leader of the Labour Party, who was there as a press representative.
Collection reference F9351
Year 1916
Credits Cameraman: Sydney B. Taylor; Production Co: Department of Agriculture
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Work of the NZ Medical Corps
Few films survive from the thousands of feet Harry Sanders and Tommy Scales shot for the New Zealand Government in England and Europe during the First World War.
This film is one of the few that does and "it is one of Sanders' best films and has a naturalness lacking in some of the others, where the soldiers ham it up for the camera. Here the fact that badly wounded men have to be attended to limits any sense of artifice. It is a comprehensive look at the casualty evacuation system used in the New Zealand Division at the time of the Messines Offensive in June 1917." (p.301)
Collection reference F4310
Year 1917
Credits Cameraman: Lt Henry A. Sanders; Production Co: New Zealand Official Film
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With the NZ Expeditionary Force in the UK Part One
Few films survive from the thousands of feet Harry Sanders and Tommy Scales shot for the New Zealand Government in England and Europe during the First World War.
This is a small part (530 of 9000 feet) of a compilation of Scales' films taken in England showing NZEF soldiers arriving in Liverpool and marching into Sling Camp.
It premiered at a War Film Exhibition in London in January 1918, and "was a major achievement and was proof of the range of work that Scales achieved in his first eight months." (p.346)
Collection reference F1001
Year 1918
Credits Cameraman: Sergeant Thomas F. Scales; Production Co: New Zealand Official Film
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The Land We Live In
Charles Newham filmed these scenes of the Glaxo milk powder factory at Matangi, one of the few early industrial films which still survives.
This footage, as well as the scenic footage of Wellington and Christchurch "was part of the film, The Land We Live In that was produced by Messrs Siegel and Wilson, the principals of the New Zealand Educational Film Company that toured the film throughout New Zealand. The film was aimed at both the educational market and the general public. Two years had been spent filming the scenic attractions and the major industries of New Zealand... It had the backing of the Tourist Department and it was intended to 'show the film in various parts of the world'". (pp.378-379)
Collection reference F11142
Year 1919
Credits Cameraman: Charles F. Newham; Production Co: NZ Educational Film Co
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Pathé Gazette No.613, Torquay – "Goodbye 'Digger'"
New Zealand soldiers often didn't return from the First World War alone. Sometimes they brought a wife and even an infant child, or a "little digger", back with them as this item from a post-war Pathé Gazette newsreel shows.
"The film shows the departure of 22 officers and 328 other ranks, together with some 60 wives and their children, following a march through the town to a cheering crowd. They assemble on the wharf and are taken by tender to the SS Ruahine, that, because of its size, was anchored out in the bay. We see the married soldiers holding, and in some cases bottle-feeding, their children, while their smiling wives and family members look on. It was one of three sailings from Torquay in November 1919." (p.415)
Collection reference F245647
Year 1919
Credits Production Co: Pathé Gazette
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Prince in NZ: Wellington's Wonderful Welcome
The Prince of Wales toured New Zealand in 1920 as recognition of New Zealand's role in the First World War. As with all royal visits, this was exceedingly popular with the public and local cameramen:
"According to Frank Stewart, he and Charlie Barton were some of the 14 motion picture operators at the Auckland reception. Five films are listed in the Film Censor's records... [and] [t]here were many other films taken by cameramen for immediate screening in the local picture theatres that were not seen by the film censor." (p.427)
This short extract from a Pathé newsreel is one of the many films taken of the visit, and shows the rapturous welcome to the Prince in Wellington on 6 May 1920.
Collection reference F102444
Year 1920
Credits Production Co: Pathé Gazette
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