Amateur photographers wait for the Queen to arrive, Waitangi, 6 February 1963, Still from movie footage by British Pathé, “New Zealand Greets Queen,” on YouTube |
Part 1 of this article looked at press photography during the Royal Visit to Tauranga on 9 February 1963. Some of their output may be found online in archives such as Tauranga Library’s Pae Korokī or, in the case of cine footage, on YouTube. Any stills or clips which include crowd scenes, however, show an enormous number of cameras in the hands of amateurs, many of whom have jostled their way to the front row or found an elevated point to capture the Queen and the Duke as they went past.
The Queen and Mayor David Mitchell at Memorial Park, 9 February 1963 Bay of Plenty Times, clip from 120-format film negative Tauranga City Libraries, Gifford-Cross Collection, Pae Korokī Ref. gca-4687 |
The scene above captured by a Bay of Plenty Times staff photographer includes several onlookers with cameras at the ready: a young boy with a Kodak Starlet at far left, a man with a range finder, another man (in white hat) holding a box camera at waist level, an older man with a cine camera and, at far right, another man operating a cine camera. This was most likely Norman Blackie, whose footage of the day was donated to Tauranga City Library and subsequently deposited with Nga Taonga Sound & Vision.
The footage has recently been digitised and will be made available in due course on Pae Korokī.
The Queen arriving at Ocean Beach, Mt Maunganui, 9 Feb 1963 Bay of Plenty Times, clip from 35mm format film negative Tauranga City Libraries, Gifford-Cross Collection, Pae Korokī Ref. gcc-1606 |
Among the onlookers here welcoming the Queen and Prince Philip to Ocean Beach, Mount Maunganui, at least nine in this view are wielding cameras.
Kodak advertisement, The Press (Christchurch), 2 Dec 1963 (Papers Past) |
Since the previous Royal Visit nine years earlier,
photography had become an almost ubiquitous presence in society. Not only were
all the major newspapers sending photographers far and wide to fill each issue
with images, but almost every household would have owned multiple cameras. Several
Tauranga chemists, such as L.E. Woods, David Jones and B.F. Martin, as well as
more specialist shops like Rendell’s and Carter’s Photo Service, would have stocked and processed film, as well as selling cameras such as those advertised by Kodak New Zealand.
Kodak Camera Parade product
display, Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd, c. 1963 Museums Victoria Collections, Ref. MM 107147 |
By 1963 the available models ranged from the Brownie 127 at the lower end (for £1-15-9) to the Retina Automatic I (£53-11-6) – equivalent to a range from roughly NZ$61 to $1845 in today’s money. The Brownie Flash II, of which there were several examples included in the above product display, was the latest in a long line of successors to the original Brownie produced in 1900, and cost £2-19-6.
Judging by the number of these cameras that turn up for sale on TradeMe, some still with a film inside, they were valued possessions. Although by this time the Starlet and 127 were predominantly made from plastic and marketed primarily for use by children, the top end Retina models were high spec pieces of equipment originally designed to compete with rangefinders such as the Leica and Contax.
Sightseers in Waikorire (Pilot Bay), Mount Maunganui, 9 February 1963 Colour positive transparency by Robert Gale Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0005/20/594 |
The colour slide view above, showing Waikorire (Pilot Bay) crowded with sightseers and the Queen’s motor launch in the foreground, off Salisbury Wharf, was one of several taken that day by local resident Robert Gale, a teacher and member of the Tauranga Photographic Society. It is among more than 2000 slides deposited by his family and Alf Rendell with the Tauranga Heritage Collection.
The Queen and the Duke depart from Salisbury Wharf, Mount Maunganui, 9 February
1963 Colour positive transparency by unidentified photographer Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī, Ref. 04-305 |
In another colour slide, this one taken by an unidentified photographer, probably within minutes of the previous shot, and held by Tauranga City Libraries, well-wishers farewell the Royals as they head down Salisbury Wharf to the waiting motor launch.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in Australia, 18-19 February 1963 Black-and-white positive transparency by Robert Gale Image courtesy of Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0005/20/131 |
Tauranga residents continued to follow the progress of the Royal Tour after they had left Tauranga. Robert Gale took this photograph of the television reportage on 20 February 1963, presumably on their arrival in Canberra (18th) or Adelaide (19th). There must be many more such images out there in the community. A short home movie clip from Archives New Zealand shared on Facebook a couple of years ago (watch here) brought several responses from people who remembered the day well.
It is my feeling that Tauranga’s 1963 Royal Visit may have been our most photographed event to date – perhaps not on the scale of the multitude of cell phone images taken nowadays, but a huge record for the time. Many of those snapshots and home movies have inevitably been discarded over the last six decades during attic clear-outs, moves and rationalisations, but there must still be some around. If you have any taken on that day, either by yourself or other family members, and are happy to share them, it would be nice to hear from you. Please email me at gluepot@gmail.com.
References
Royal Visit 1963 Itinerary, P.M. No. 60/1962, Transcripts
from the Prime Ministers of Australia, URL: https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-586
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