MAVtech Collection

'Magic Lantern' slides were designed to be projected in a machine like this one. The magic lantern is an early type of optical projector and has been around in some form since the middle of the 17th century. The slides they used had drawings or (from 1849) photographs. Smaller slides became popular in the 1930s and by 1960 the magic lantern was virtually extinct. 

In Victorian times travelling lanternists would give shows in many Horowhenua towns. Sometimes they would be comical but most of the time they were educational- giving views and information about far off lands and new discoveries. By the early 20th century the lanterns were being used by schools, churches and conservation groups. Keen photographers would also make and screen lantern slides of their families.

This particular magic lantern was made in England in the late 1940s- aimed at domestic users or small classrooms and company presentations. Johnson did not design it- they bought the moulds from Ensign whose lantern factory was destroyed during the Blitz. Unlike earlier kerosene powered lanterns, the Optiscope uses a mains powered light bulb.

A range of magic lanterns are on display at Foxton's MAVtech museum of audio and visual technology.

A slide designed to be projected with a 'magic lantern'. The HMS Hood was the biggest warship in the world for much of her service and was the pride of the Royal Navy. Seen as a reminder of the power of Empire, the 'Mighty Hood' visited New Zealand in 1924 and 1936. This photograph was taken during one of these visits.

Slides of the visit would have been viewed around Aotearoa at the time. HMS Hood's 1936 visit was especially important when the warship's presence provided a sense of security as war brewed in Europe. However, the Hood was sunk when fighting the German 'Bismark' in 1941. 

A slide depicting a traditional farming scene from New Zealand made in around the 1920s. Agriculture was a popular theme in New Zealand painting, photography and literature at the time. The fact that it formed the biggest part of our economy no doubt had something to do with this.

This slide was designed to be projected onto a wall using a 'magic lantern' projector. 

Records on Kete Horowhenua show the Foxton Shoe Company located on Main Street in 1950 and 1955 (but it may have existed before and after those dates). They were located just to the right of the Whyte Street intersection (from the perspective of Whyte Street).

In a time when many jobs required a suit, having a fine pair of shoes like this was a must. This slide would have been shown in Foxton cinemas in the 1950s (most likely during intermission). Cinema advertising was popular with local businesses due to it's low cost and with around forty million cinema tickets being sold per year at the time these ads had reach! 

MAVtech's collection of advertising slides provide a glimpse into many businesses which have long disappeared. How many small towns today have a specialist shoe shop? 

From 1953 to 1993 the Himatangi Radio Transmitting Station was one of our links to the outside world. Before it opened we could only radio as far as Australia and relied on Sydney technicians to patch us through to other locations. The opening of the Himatangi Station changed all that.

For much of it's life the station was a 24/7 operation with married staff living nearby in Post Office housing and single men living in hostels onsite. This duty logbook covers much of the 1980s and was the record of who was operating the station each shift. It is pictured with part of the station's control panel. By the 1980s much of the station was automated and the Warkworth Satellite Station (opened in 1971) had eclipsed Himatangi in importance. But keeping the station on air was still a big job. 

Parts of Himatangi's control panel and transmitters can be seen at the MAVtech Museum in Foxton's Coronation Hall. 

This is a page from the last log book of the Himatangi Transmitting Station. The station started it's career in 1953 with an early highlight being the transmission of the Queen's Christmas Message during her 1953 New Zealand tour. By 1993 satellite stations were replacing radio as the main means of international communication and the station shut down only a few weeks after these entries were made.

The station was government run and transmitted messages via radio- another station in Wellington acted as the receiver. Before undersea cables and satellites, these radio stations were our main link with the outside world.

Attack submarine motors were used as backup generators in the 1960s to ensure Himatangi never ran out of power. 

A control panel from the station, and many historical documents, can be viewed at the MAVtech Museum in Foxton's Coronation Hall.

 A portable transistor radio bought on the 13th of April 1962 from Woolworths in Oxford Street, Levin. With original box, user manual, warranty and sales card. Transistor radios were smaller and more reliable than the old valve radios and did not need a 'warm up time'. They first became popular in the mid 1950s and were soon the latest and greatest thing to have.

Autocrat made this model in New Zealand- but in the late 1950s these portable radios were hard to get. In fact, they were one of the most common items Customs found being smuggled into the country at the time! It wasn't the only illegal thing involving these little radios- teenagers would use them in their rooms to secretly listen to the 'pirate radio stations' of the 1960s.  

With intermissions becoming less popular and automation taking over in cinemas around the world, projectionists needed a way of screening a whole movie without a break. The answer was the film platter- a giant motorised spool for a length of 35mm film. 

This platter was made by Foxton local Colin Martin.  Projectionist Gavin Cowren (now the projectionist at MAVtech) remembers it being powered by a series of vacuum cleaner motors. Despite it's home-made appearance it had a long, useful life and could screen a three-hour movie in one go!

You can see the platter at the MAVtech Museum in Foxton- and find out more about it's incredible story!

A vintage gramophone from 'His Master's Voice' (The Gramophone Company Ltd) from around 1910. This model belonged to the Burr family and seldom left Foxton in over a century! It is now on display with many other vintage musical machines at MAVtech in Foxton's Coronation Hall. 

This gramophone was made before electric amplifiers were invented so needed a large horn to make itself heard. There was no volume control- putting a sock (or cloth) into the horn was the only way of quietening down a gramophone!

Health stamps have an important place in New Zealand history. They worked like a regular stamp but cost ever so slightly more with the extra money going towards children's health camps.

These camps were set up in 1919 to benefit children with minor physical disabilities and nutritional problems. Complete with fresh air, good food and fun activities they soon proved popular and necessary. The first health stamp was issued in 1929. This slide screened in cinemas to encourage patrons to buy the 1973 version of the health stamp.

In 1996 $158,000 was raised through these stamps but e-mail proved to be their undoing- just $35,000 was raised in 2007. By 2017 the cost of designing and printing the stamps was far higher than the money they raised so New Zealand Post discontinued Health Stamps.

Tell everybody! This would have been one amazing deal when the cinema was at the heart of New Zealand entertainment. Sir Robert Kerridge began buying cinemas in 1926, picking up pace when solo operators folding during the Great Depression. By the late 1940s he controlled over 130 cinemas and sold a 50% stake in his company to the British 'J Arthur Rank Organisation' for just under one million pounds and a Rolls Royce car.

Slides like this one were shown during intermission in Kerridge-Odeon theatres to drum up repeat business! 

Cinema advertising slides were usually shown in theatres at the end of the intermission ('God Save The Queen', a newsreel and a sports feature were often featured before the film). But 'advertising' wasn't just for local businesses- local clubs and groups had messages screened alongside official government messages and ads for upcoming features the theatre was screening.

This slide is advertising an athletics day in Foxton's Victoria Park. It dates to around the 1950s/early 1960s and is now a glimpse into what early evening entertainment looked like before television.....

In the 1950s cinema advertising was extremely popular for small New Zealand businesses. The average New Zealander made seventeen trips to the cinema by the end of the decade. Forty million cinema tickets were sold in 1960 alone! 

Cinema slides were inexpensive to make so local businesses could afford to advertise in a handful of local cinemas. This ad would probably cause a stir if screened today- corporal punishment was outlawed in schools in 1990!

In 1950 Johnson's Bakery was on Main Street, between the intersections of Whyte Street and Clyde Street. More information can be found on the following Kete page

https://horowhenua.kete.net.nz/item/3f2158a5-57a3-4441-8486-116931202d7c

This slide would have been shown as part of a national campaign from the 1970s (approximately). In the early years of Civil Defence some print media outlets, angered by government refusal to include them in emergency planning sessions, were reluctant to support Civil Defence's non-emergency press releases. As a result, direct messages like this one in cinemas would have been very valuable.

The slide shown here was screened during intermission in the wider Manawatu/Horowhenua area. 

Just as we sit through ads before watching videos on YouTube, audiences were viewing advertising slides in the cinema over fifty years ago. Each slide lasted for only a few seconds and were shown at the end of intermission as the audience waited for the second half of their picture to begin.

Nobody goes to the cinema to see advertising and W.A. Coleman must have known this thanks to their slide's witty pun.  Each slide was shown for only a few seconds so the best of them had an eye catching design and a quick, memorable message. On those criteria this is one of the most effective slides held at MAVtech!

The Companies Offices shows W.A. Coleman was registered in 1956 but are no longer trading. Thanks to cinema advertising slides many local businesses live on in the archives of many museums.

Foxton Fizz has been a Horowhenua icon since 1918. Founded at a time when many New Zealand towns had their own soda drink, it is now one of the last brands surviving. 

Keeping local support would have been crucial, and this slide was shown around the Foxton cinemas in the 1950s/1960s. 

Cinema slides were only shown for a few seconds- otherwise the heat from the projector lamp would crack the glass! The photograph was hand coloured and may have been a stock  photo- 'Foxton Fizz' does not appear on the bottle the model is holding....

MAVtech has a broad collection of magic lantern slides- but none are more haunting than this one. We know very little about the person in this photograph. From his uniform we know  he was a lieutenant in the First World War. He is wearing a gas mask to protect against enemy chemical warfare attacks (or 'friendly' gas blowing back towards his own lines). His uniform is clean- it is unlikely he was photographed anywhere near 'The Front'.

It may have been a snapshot. Private cameras on the Western Front were banned from 22nd of December, 1914. One soldier found with a camera was sentenced to three months imprisonment with hard labour. However, the rules were often disobeyed and were sometimes laxer with regards to 'Officers' like a lieutenant. Cameras were also allowed 'behind the lines'  or off-duty, when this picture may have been taken.

But it is more likely that this was an official photograph taken to be displayed during magic lantern lectures at the home front. People were desperate for any news of the war and were eager for photographs. This soldier looks clean, well fed and comparatively relaxed for someone preparing for a chemical attack. He would have been a reassuring image for those back home.

Although magic lantern slides were most famously used professionally by schools, universities, churches and lobby groups they were also used by amateur photographers. The glass slides, 'masks' for displaying the image and fixing chemicals could be bought from local photography stores. Anyone with darkroom could have a go.

What makes this slide unusual is that it is in colour- by this stage, most amateurs had abandoned magic lantern slides in favour of smaller, 35mm film. The car's number plates are pre-1964 which gives us an idea of the last date this slide could have been made.

Regardless of how it was captured, this photograph is of a wonderful 'Kiwi' caravan holiday. Where it was taken remains a mystery. 

Back when Foxton Beach had fewer residents (and far fewer phone numbers) it was possible to sell fruit and vegetables street by street twice a week. At least, that's what Mister Hitchings did! His cinema advertising slide would have been shown at local theatres for a few seconds at a time- otherwise the heat from the projector arc would crack the slide. 

Given that each slide was shown for such a short time, the best of them used eye-catching, simple designs like this one. 

However, MAVtech cannot find any references to Hitching's business in Kete or in other records, so it may not have survived in Main Street for long. Cinema advertising slides were a great source of promotion for local businesses due to their low cost and (in a time when going to the cinema was sometimes a weekly pleasure) a high reach. Today they are often the only trace of historical businesses which survive. 

This classroom resource was issued by the Department of Education to Levin's Saint Joseph's School in the 1970s. It brings to life two of Aesop's fables- The Tortoise and the Hare as well as The Rat and The Lion. 

These audio visual kits were the 1970s equivalent of today's smart whiteboard and internet connection- they brought the world into the classroom. Each contained one or more filmstrips- single images (sometimes cartoons, sometimes photographs) on a long strip of 35mm film which were shown one at a time through a projector. An audio cassette tape provided background narration and music while a booklet contained a transcript and ideas for class activities.

The Department's 'Visual Production Unit' made some filmstrips themselves of local topics such as industries and New Zealand geography. However, these children's stories were bought from Weston Woods Studios, an American company based in Connecticut. Weston Woods was acquired by Scholastic in 1996.

Four generations of the Roache family have worked at Roaches Concrete products. Founded in the mid 1950s, it has been a continuous presence in Foxton ever since. In 1971 David Roache and his wife Pauline bought the firm from David's father and it became a limited liability company (so this slide was made before that year). In 1994 the company moved to its current (as of 2023) Foxton location off State Highway One so it had room to grow. 

Roaches Concrete is still trading but many of MAVtech's cinema advertising slides are from business which closed long ago. Unlike a costly national campaign, cinema slides could be shown in a select group of local theatres which meant they could be targeted to the local audience. Slides were generally shown during intermission and for a couple of seconds at a time- otherwise the heat from the projector would crack them!

This slide probably would have been shown in Foxton and Levin cinemas only.

Boosted by a wave of European immigrants as well as overseas literature and film, 'café culture' was on the rise in 1950s Aotearoa. It started in the big cities where they overtook the pre war 'milk bars' but there ascendancy was scuttled by the arrival of television and the abolition of six o' clock closing for bars. Today cafes have had a resurgence.

Thanks to 'Snow Whites De Luxe Cafe' there was no reason for Levin to miss out on the big city excitement! They probably didn't really have seven dwarfs but this slide was shown in the cinema- a magical place where reality was suspended for a while, and many advertisers were liberal with their claims on their slides! 

During the First World War when New Zealanders on the 'home front' were far away from the front line and struggled to get accurate photographs published in the press, seeing photos of commanders like Haig would have been important.

Sir Douglas Haig is pictured here after his promotion to General in late 1914 but before his rise to Field Marshal in 1917. A senior commander for much of the war, he has a complicated legacy. Once nicknamed 'the master of the field' and 'the man who won the war' he is now known as 'the butcher of the Somme'- forever linked with the bloody attrition of trench warfare and backward thinking military tactics. However, historians are still divided over which of these legacies is the most deserved.

This 'magic lantern slide' was designed to be inserted into a protector (most likely powered by a lightbulb or, for bigger audiences, a carbon arc lamp) and enlarged onto a screen. Haig's photograph would have been shown in cinemas, schools and churches as well as in community meeting urging patriotism for the war. 

The corner of the slide indicates that it was made in London and it's copies would have served a similar purpose there. 

Public appeals like this one were screened during cinema intermissions by placing the slide into a special holder in the projector for a couple of seconds (any more and the slide would crack!).

Many of these 'appeal' slides (and ones advertising upcoming film screenings) had a blank space at the bottom for the projectionist to add the latest details in removeable ink. Some blank slides were kept on hand for 'on the spot' messages like an appeal for a doctor if there was a medical emergency in the cinema.

Compared to many of MAVtech's advertising slides this one is quite basic- but it would have gotten it's message across well. It probably dates to the 1950s/1960s- long before we had a national blood donation service, hence the lack of logos.

In the time before the internet 'watching the papers' was a great way to get the word out....

In the dead of night, sometime in 1983/1984, two trainee radio technicians crept out of the staff hostel at the Himatangi Radio transmitting station and out into the darkness. Making their way to the main road they carefully (but not very quietly) removed the AA sign pointing towards the government communications station- stopping only to dive into the bushes every time a car drove past. Their mission complete, they snuck into the hostel and carefully hid the sign.

This AA sign remained a carefully guarded secret until 2016. The station had long gone- satellite communications led to it being obsolete and it was closed down in 1993, but a control panel and other equipment survived at the MAVtech Museum in Foxton. It now hangs from the ceiling and points the way to the radio exhibit. 

How many other road signs succumbed to pranks and hijinks in the decades the station operated? Nobody knows for sure- but given the stories we hear it probably wasn't just the one!

Horowhenua locals will be familiar with the sound of RNZAF aircraft thundering overhead thanks to the Ohakia airbase in nearby Manawatu. Ossie Tong, a barber and businessman from Bulls, knew an opportunity when we saw one and offered special 'parade ground haircuts' at his barbershop!

His other advertising was brilliant as well- this cinema advertising slide would have caught lots of attention.

At the end of intermission, just as cinema patrons were settling into their seats, the advertising slides were screened. The job of preparing, screening and storing these slides was usually the job of the apprentice projectionist. During the 'Carbon Arc' projector era (lasting until the 1960s) it took over four years to become a fully qualified projectionist so this was a job you got used to!

Each slide was only shown for a few seconds to avoid the glass cracking from the projector lamp's heat. This meant that audiences never got to ask- why does that man have so many chickens on the BBQ? Should he buy a bigger one? How many people does has he invited? Will the meat cook evenly or will everyone get food poisoning? Whatever the answers were he looks very pleased with himself....

With the rise of the supermarket the local butcheries often closed down. We have slides from Foxton and Foxton Beach butchers but neither trade in the towns today.

Companies records show that this business was registered on the 20th of June 1975 and was removed from the register on the 15th of June 1993. 

Whites Radio Service was trading on Foxton's Main Street in 1960 and stayed in it's site as late as 1987 (and possibly later) according to Kete Horowhenua's Foxton Historical Society posts. 

There was an earlier radio shop, owned by a Mister R.Cull, on the same site in 1941. 

In 1960 there were just over 577,000 New Zealand radio licences in 1960 and this number was just under 700,000 a decade later so Foxton's radio shop must have been very busy indeed! Even when television arrived it was not portable so radio remained competitive. 

But this slide, played during cinema intermissions, was not advertising radios. Instead it was advertising records. With the very conservative stewardship of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service (later the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation) Kiwi airwaves didn't feature many of the most daring rock and pop tracks and none of the protest songs sung on university campuses. If you wanted to hear them you needed to buy a copy of your own!

Note the 'Disneyland' name on one of the pictured labels. Who said Foxton was missing out on overseas trends in music!

MAVtech, the keeper of this slide, is home to Radio Foxton which broadcasts on 105.4FM- FM radio wasn't an option in the 1960s.

Note: This slide has some damage- especially to it's top left hand corner.

Most cinema advertising slides were examples of local advertising- but few were as local as this one. There has been a Manawatu Hotel on Foxton's Avenue Road since the late 1890s and when this slide was made (probably in the 1950s) the hotel was only a few houses away from the Coronation Hall cinema where this slide was likely screened!

How many cinema patrons stopped by the bar on the way home to talk about the film? Or had some dinner at the Hotel before taking their seats? 

'Beer gardens' only appeared in New Zealand from the late 1940s so Foxton was part of a trend and trying to keep 'good taste'. The term 'Mine Host' is a jovial expression for a bar landlord/manager and is an old term for 'my host' which survived in popular culture.

Ernie Head is 'mine host' when this slide was shown- replacing the former host whose name was covered over. 

After closing for a time the Manawatu Hotel reopened in 2013 is still trading as of 2023. Coronation Hall is now home to the MAVtech Museum but still has its projectors and 200 seats- perfect for the monthly movie night! 

There were many small New Zealand soft drink companies trading in the mid-20th century and it seems that Foxton Fizz had some competition! 'Shamrock' branded soft drinks were made and sold by O'Connor's Cordials and online records suggest that this company was based in Levin.

The slide screened during cinema intermission and shows a group of happy children at a birthday party complete with novelty hats! The colour fading out on the slide would have emphasised the Shamrock logo and the contented faces.

Shamrock labels have been found dating from the 1950s. This slide comes from the 'Foxton' collection of slides. Rather brave of Shamrock to advertise in Foxton Fizz territory! Foxton's own fizz managed to survive the battle with international soft drink brands (just) but Shamrock didn't live up to it's lucky name and has long since disappeared.