Page 11 – Flaxmilling – 7 b/w photos & 1 stereoview
Top to bottom (L to R) - a) Mr Charles Lee, flax worker, standing among the flax, 20 August 1928. {copy} Wearing his “Sunday best” at Webb’s Nursery, row 43.
b) Loading flax onto punt on Manawatu River, 1901. {original stereoview} Bundles of flax leaves sent down wooden shute from top of riverbank (left). 2 men load flax on the punt while another man waits on the steam launch. Used in book – “From Bush & Swamp”, page 91, with caption - Green flax leaves being loaded on to a punt, propelled by a steam launch on the Manawatu River in 1901. The tall bush that covered a wide area can be seen clearly.
c) Miranui Mill – cookhouse, billiard room & men’s living quarters, 1920’s. {copy} Car (left), 5 buildings (right), 2 women & 2 children (right), 3 men (centre) standing in road. Used in book – “From Bush & Swamp”, page 101, with caption - This neat little village scene of the 1920’s is the Miranui Mill’s cook house, billiard room and men’s living quarters. (see also – Acc.#s2002.081.0006 additional copy)
d) Locomotive with dignitaries passing under Main Trunk Railway Line, Miranui, 1907. {copy} Used in book – “From Bush & Swamp”, page 93, with caption - Opening day at the Miranui mill, 16 November 1907. Bowler hatted dignitaries, guests and members of the press toured the flax swamps. They rode on a flax train pulled by a Barclay saddle tank locomotive, nicknamed ‘Sandfly’, and are shown in the subway beneath the main trunk railway line. (Photo courtesy J.F. Spall). Used in booklet – “Miranui – The story of New Zealand’s largest flax mill”, page 9, with caption - (4) The mill’s five ton “Bagnall” locomotive carrying guests and members of the press on the day of the official opening. They are returning from a tour of the Makerua flax swamp. The engine is passing beneath the railway line owned by the Wellington-Manawatu Railway Company which passed the mill. The mill owners paid the railway company the sum of 1 pound for many years for the right to pass beneath the line. Photo: Palmerston North Public Library.
e) Mr Charles Lee, flax worker, standing among the flax, 1928. {copy} Webb’s Nursery ?
f) ‘Poplar Flax-Mill, Moutoa, New Zealand, 1915’. {copy} Buildings with ‘cone-stack’ of treated flax fibre at right.
g) Unloading flax train in storage yards at stripping sheds, Miranui, c.1908. {copy} Used in booklet – “Miranui – The story of New Zealand’s largest flax mill”, page 14, with caption - (14) Below: Journey’s end. Unloading the flax at the storage yards in front of the stripping shed at Miranui. Photo: Palmerston North Public Library.
h) Miranui Flaxmill employees of A & L Seifert’s Flax-dressing Co. Ltd., c.1908 Group photo outside stripping sheds. Man (centre, foreground) sitting on ground holding child, has been identified as Mr R.H. (Dick) Webb, the mill manager. Used in book – “From Bush & Swamp”, page 99, with caption - Some of the employees of A & L Seifert’s Flaxdressing Co Ltd about 1910, photographed outside the stripping shed of the Miranui mill. The man sitting on the ground in the centre (holding a young child) is R.H. (Dick) Webb, the mill manager. (see also – Acc.#s2002.019.0010a & b additional copies, dated c.1910) (see also – Acc.#s2002.081.0007 original, mounted)
Any use of this image must be accompanied by the credit “Horowhenua Historical Society Inc.”
