[AUCKLAND LABOUR DAY PARADE AND SPORTS]

A parade of workers, floats and a brass band through crowded but wet Auckland streets (probably on an October Labour Day). People hold banners of work guilds and unions; Gum Workers, Stone Masons, Coach Workers. Followed by competitions in the Auckland Domain of firemen rolling fire hoses.

Discussions with the economist Brian Easton and Professor Erik Olssen, an authority on early NZ trade union history, indicates that the slogans used in the parade were typical of late 19th and early 20th Century NZ unions but had lapsed by the 1920s. The NZ Gum Diggers Union was particularly strong in pre-1914 Auckland. The nature of the dress of the men and boys, the lack of any automobiles in any of the scenes, either as part of the parade or on the streets (all of the floats and all of the transport on the streets are horse-drawn), the presence of tramlines and overhead wires (electric trams came in from about 1905) and the jerky nature of the panning shot at the Auckland Domain cricket ground makes it clear that this is not a film made in 1923 as was originally dated but one from the period 1905-1910.

Kurt Otzen examined the nitrate and, while there were no edge codes, the frame lines and shape are very like Pathe stock 1908-1916, and so the assessment is that this is a very rare scene of an Auckland Labour Day parade from the period 1908-1910.

The film historian Clive Sowry also examined the nitrate and provided the following detail.

‘The Auckland Procession and Sports film was probably filmed on October 12, 1910, by "West's Operator" (name unknown, but not Brandon Haughton) and screened the same evening by West's Pictures at the Royal Albert Hall Auckland. I have this listed (currently) as film no. 199 in the period 1898-1910. There is a possibility that it might be the Labour Day procession of 1911, which was also filmed, but the sketchy details of this latter film mention only the procession and not the sports. A further check of published photographs and reports of the events might be warranted to confirm 1910.’

Notes by Chris Pugsley.

0 ft. Street parade, banners & floats - Britannia on a float, Auckland Coach Workers, (signs on shops 'American Dental Parlors' 'A.E. Shrimski' 'Schneider Bros. Ltd Tailors'), Auckland Operative Stone Masons Industrial Union of Workers', float of a big shoe and sign 'These Goods New Zealand', Auckland Gum Workers Union, 2 floral floats, a brass band and a float with a thatched hut.
72 ft. C.U. of bag - 'Roller Milling Co, Standard Rolled Oats’ acting as intertitle.
75 ft. Street parade : float with Royal Insignia & sign 'The Only Champion', a pipe band, a float with sailors and a cannon on it, surrounded by flags. 'Single Tax Pills' - 'Champion', a float with schoolboys on it, reading 'Protection - No Single Tax Fads'; and a float with bags heaped up on it reading 'Muscle Kaiser', and the word Champion. Next, a wagon with people and a sign 'P Lupton', and unidentified float and one with a tent on, reading 'It will last as long as 3...?'.
125 ft. 'At Domain Cricket Ground'.
128 ft. Crowd there, watching firemen racing to roll up their hoses.
169 ft. Pan of cricket ground grandstand, crowds.
183 ft. Finish.