The Henry Wright Collection of photographic negatives

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XII, Issue 1, 1 May 1979, Page 37

The Henry Wright Collection of photographic negatives

JOHN SULLIVAN

In July 1976 the Alexander Turnbull Library’s photograph section received a most interesting and valuable addition to its holdings in the form of a large collection of glass plate negatives rescued from a Newtown basement. The negatives were brought to the library’s attention as the result of a telephone call from Mrs Bethne Mudge, of 117 Mein Street, Newtown. Mrs Mudge and her husband were preparing the house for sale and were faced with the problem of disposing of two mouldering orange crates packed with dusty photographic plates which had been standing on the earth floor of the basement for a considerable time. Their public spirited response to the problem is a happy contrast to the actions of those who have been responsible for the destruction of many such collections in the past.

The collection consisted of 380 whole-plate and half-plate negatives. All of them were dry plates; the factory coated and sensitized plates which began to supersede the hand sensitized wet plates in the early 1880 s, only to be superseded in turn by George Eastman’s roll film at the turn of the century. Most bore the marks of many years of storage in damp and dirty conditions but careful cleaning revealed 380 printable negatives. These have now been printed and most have been identified.

The house had originally been built by Henry Wright a well-known Wellington businessman who had lived there from 1896 until his death in 1936. Wright, an accountant and commercial agent, was one of Wellington’s more colourful citizens. Until the time of his death he was to be seen around town wearing the top hat, frock coat and check trousers, with brightly-coloured tie and opal pin, which had caused him to be described in his obituary as ‘the most benevolent-looking professional debt collector in the world’. 1 His large and comprehensively annotated library, subsequently bequeathed to the Alexander Turnbull Library, revealed him as holding not less colourful views on a wide variety of topics, not the least of which was the'place of women in society. His views on women’s suffrage led him to produce a poster entitled ‘Notice to epicene women’ which was duplicated and published by the library in 1975.

It became evident from an examination of the negatives that Wright was responsible for the plates and that he was, furthermore, a photographer of considerable talent. Henry Wright was born in the south of England in 1844 and came out to Australia as a child. The date of his arrival in New Zealand is not known but he spent the years before 1877 in the Auckland province. At various times he kept a store at Whangaroa and managed mining companies in Coromandel. Between 1873 and 1876 he was in business in

Auckland as an accountant and as manager of a firm of merchants and during this period he also held the position of advisory accountant to the Auckland City Council. In 1877 he came to Wellington, taking a position as manager of a firm of timber merchants, and in 1879 he laid the foundation for his future career when he was appointed by the Supreme Court as certificated accountant in bankruptcy under the Debtors and Creditors Act for the Wellington district. In 1880 he was appointed secretary of the Gear Meat Co. and in 1882 he became the first secretary of the Wellington Meat Export Co. In this latter position he was responsible for overseeing the freezing and stowage of the first cargo of frozen meat to leave Wellington; 6,000 mutton carcases which left aboard the Lady Jocelyn on 21 December 1882. In 1890 he was a party to the formation of the Wellington Employers’ Association and in 1893 he established the Commercial Agency Ltd., with which company he was associated until his death in February 1936. 2

The bulk of the collection, some of which is comprehensively annotated with technical data and dates down to the time of day and prevailing weather conditions, dates from the period 1889-1894. Regrettably, no plates survive documenting his residence in the Auckland Province before 1877 and none documents his role in the

pioneering of the freezing industry in Wellington. That which does survive, however, provides a unique picture of domestic life in the late Victorian period and a record of the diverse interests of a most singular businessman. On his arrival in Wellington Wright seems to have settled first in the then sparsely populated suburb of Berhampore. In the late 1880 s and early 1890 s he was living in Britomart Street 3 and photographs from this period indicate that the interest in horticulture commented on in his obituary was already well developed. In Wright’s photographs of his home and surroundings at this time one is always aware of the importance of a well-kept, productive vegetable garden and glasshouse to city dwellers of the time, especially those in the more distant suburbs.

During this period Wright’s interests were not confined to Wellington. A series of photographs taken in the Mahakipawa district, Marlborough County, during the period 1890-91 indicate an interest in the Lucky Hit alluvial gold claim 4 and also, possibly, in the New Zealand Antimony Co. at Endeavour Inlet. An interesting sidelight on the latter is a copy plate of an elaborate testimonial drawn up by the employees of the New Zealand Antimony Co. in 1889 to Houston Francis Logan, who had been dismissed from his position as manager of works by the directors for alleged incompetence. 5

From 19 December 1892 until 18 February 1893 Wright found himself in a quite different locality and occupation. On 28July 1881, Little Barrier Island (Hauturu) had been proclaimed as under negotiation for purchase by the Crown in a New Zealand Gazette notice. At the time, however, ownership of the island was being disputed in the Maori Land Court by Ngati Whatua and Ngati Wai, judgement being given in favour of Ngati Wai in October 1886. It was not until October 1891 that Ngati Wai entered into an agreement with the Crown to sell the island as a forest reserve and bird sanctuary. At the same time tempting offers were made to Ngati Wai for the kauri stands on the islands and in March 1892, negotiations with the Crown not having been completed, and Auckland merchant, Simon Welton Brown, entered into an agreement with Tenetahi of Ngati Wai to purchase all the kauri timber on the island for £I,OOO and to remove it within five years. Felling proceeded apace to the displeasure of the Lands and Survey Department and public opinion. Among the concerned laymen who had visited the island was Henry Wright who, in the Weekly Graphic of 30 September 1892 and in a report to the Lands and Survey dated 17 October, made clear the damage that had already been caused to the timber stands on the island. In December an injunction against further felling was issued and Wright was

appointed temporary ranger on a salary of 20s. per day to see that the injunction was obeyed. 6 He took up residence on the island with his family, being relieved in February 1893. Shortly before his departure Wright made a fine series of plates showing with remarkable clarity the vegetation, coastline and native inhabitants of the island. Of particular interest are his views of the Maori settlement at Waitahurama, a locality for which no record survives but which was probably situated at Te Maraeroa. In all of these photographs Wright’s delicate sense of composition and fine eye for

detail are admirably displayed. These qualities may also be detected in the plates that he made at Kohukohu on the Hokianga Harbour on this and subsequent voyages to the north. These are valuable not only for their considerable artistic merit but also for their documentation of the booming timber trade and of the often highly improvised architecture of the period.

Wright’s attraction to harbours and coastlines was always strong and he has left a delightful and informal record of family outings to Wellington beaches; Island Bay, Karaka Bay and Worser Bay in particular as well as some excellent views of the port of Wellington. Wright’s ability was obviously known and recognised in his time and, although an amateur, he was appointed landscape photographer to Lord Onslow during the latter’s term as Governor-Gen-eral of New Zealand. 7 His prints turn up often in albums and the Wellington Harbour Board holds prints from his sequence of plates depicting the Worser Bay Pilot Station and the Maori settlement at Karaka Bay. These are unfortunately not accurately dated, but on the evidence of costume they were probably taken during the 1880 s. Negatives of most of these prints were recovered from the Mein Street basement. Although predominantly a landscape photographer Wright has also left a selection of portrait studies, mostly family groups. Outstanding among these is a study of Samuel

Duncan Parnell, the pioneer of the 40 hour week in New Zealand, taken injune 1890, 8 six months before his death. Even the two flies on the sitter’s jacket in one version (not the version reproduced here) contribute to the Dickensian feeling of this portrait. The value of a collection such as this to the library and to the community is immense. As well as providing aesthetic pleasure, Wright’s camera penetrated into regions where few other photographers and no other recorders travelled, not only because of their inaccessibility but also because of their essential ordinariness. Few other photographers of the nineteenth century recorded their suburban home life in such detail as Henry Wright, and fewer still took such pains to record dates and other relevant data. It is this sense of history that makes Henry Wright one of the more important photographers of the Victorian era in New Zealand.

REFERENCES 1 Evening Post, 22 May 1936. 2 ibid. 3 Wise’s New Zealand Post Office Directory. 4 AJHR 1890, C. 3, Goldfields, roads, water-races . . . , p. 65. 5 New Zealand Antimony Co., Ltd. Reportfrom the Committee of Investigation to the Shareholders , (Wellington, 1890) p. 5. 6 W. M. Hamilton, Little Barrier Island (Wellington, 1961) p. 21-26. 7 Evening Post, 22 May 1936. 8 Date inscribed on negative.