Imaging ourselves: the projection of Pakeha culture overseas 1870-1925

Abstract

The exhibition of Burford's panorama of the Bay of Islands in London in 1838 marked the beginning of New Zealand publicity campaigns directed at British audiences. Immigration publicists in London and New Zealand initially focused their campaigns on British emigrants and capitalists. After 1870, publicists began to expand the image of New Zealand as a potential destination for tourists, invalids and sportsmen. The uniqueness of New Zealand life has continually been portrayed to these audiences. Images of awe-inspiring scenery, picturesque natives, and rustic simplicity have been cultivated by image-makers. By defining New Zealand as a replica of rural England, publicists aimed to persuade the cynics and sufferers of contemporary British society that in New Zealand the British race would be revitalised. British consumers of this publicity who were to travel to New Zealand were presented with an expectation of antipodean ideality. Having arrived in New Zealand, immigrants and tourists could then endorse or criticise the publicity - depending on their actual experiences. Many colonial New Zealanders consumed the very same publicity in New Zealand at provincial, national and international exhibitions. Booksellers, steam ship companies and later Tourist Department agencies distributed the same paradisaical images throughout the country. Official visitors and commentators who praised New Zealand were often quoted in publicity. Their views appeared to validate the images that publicists projected overseas. Such praise was enthusiastically included in the leading travel guides and redistributed in Britain. The process of booming New Zealand images overseas created a cyclical effect of projection, reflection, and endorsement that confirmed for many an emergent sense of collective colonial identity. The confirmation of New Zealand's uniqueness from abroad completed a cycle of image-making that must have been immensely pleasing for Pakeha publicists and colonial day-dreamers.