Dunedin Labour Day parade, 1894

Dunedin Labour Day parade, 1894

Detail of image

Labour Day parade in Dunedin, 1894.

If you click on the thumbnail above you can see one of the floats has a banner reading 'Otago Central Railway We Must Have It'. From the beginning Labour Day parades were often used to draw attention to other political or economic issues – in this case urging the government to complete a controversial regional transport project. Work on the Otago Central Railway had begun in 1879, but progress was slow. The line would not reach Cromwell until 1921.

See also: newspaper report of this parade (PapersPast).

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