993
NEW SOUTH WALES GOVERNMENT
PRINTER
The New South Wales Government Printer (NSWGP), a
public works department in Sydney, was established in
1859 as an extension of the postage stamp department.
The fi rst Government Printer, Mr. Thomas Richards,
established the “Photolithographic and Lithographic”
department in 1868 and the “Photomechanical” de-
partment in 1877. Richards’ intention for the photo-
graphs was the depiction of natural features and the
material progress of the colony; the distribution of the
photographs was promotional. Photographs were sent
to international exhibitions, including the Centennial
International Exhibition, Melbourne, 1888, when the
department sent 178 photographs. The main form of
presentation, however, was in album format, produced
internally by the Printer’s binding department. The
quality, style, and size of the albums were remarkable
and produced as gifts for offi cial visitors. The “Album
of Views of New South Wales” presented to Lord
Knutsford, the Colonial Secretary, in 1891 at the fi rst
Federal Convention includes civil works, public build-
ings, bridges, the Sydney Botanic Gardens and outly-
ing districts. The photographers within the department
remain unknown, but the “Narrative of the Expedition of
the Australian Squadron to the South East Coast of New
Guinea, October to December, 1884” (1885) has been
attributed to Augustine Dyer (1873–1923). Photographs
were purchased and commissioned from commercial
operators including Henry King, Charles Bayliss, and
Charles Kerry. Mr. Charles Potter succeeded Mr. Rich-
ards as the Government Printer in 1886.
Julia Peck
NEW ZEALAND AND THE PACIFIC
Although the chronology of events regarding the an-
nouncement of the Daguerreotype process in late 1839
could have seen a camera and chemicals loaded on board
one of the New Zealand Company’s immigrant ships
as it set sail from London to establish a settlement in
Port Nicholson, in the lower half of the North Island,
New Zealand, this was not to be. Thus the opportunity
to document the founding of a British Colony from day
one was passed over as other more important necessities
of life found room in chests and trunks of those who
braved the long voyage and the uncertainties of life in a
new country. When a camera fi nally entered the coastal
waters of New Zealand, it probably wasn’t even taken
out of its case before it left the northern port of the Bay
of Islands in March 1841, on board a barque bound for
Sydney, Australia. There its owner, a Captain Lucas of
the French vessel Justine made a daguerreotype on April
13, 1841 which received publicity and is still heralded
as the fi rst photograph to be made in Australia.
The fi rst written account of a daguerreotype being
made in New Zealand appears in the journals of Lieu-
tenant-Governor Edward John Eyre 1815–1901, who
recorded that he failed in an attempt to get a likeness
of Eliza Grey, wife of the Governor George Grey, who
sat for him on the verandah of Government House, Wel-
lington on September 17, 1848. Besides the amateur
attempts of Eyre, trader entrepreneurs like J. Polack
and J. Newman advertised their services in the art of
daguerreotype portraiture in Auckland in May 1848.
Promising as these announcements may seem, no New
Zealand daguerreotype earlier than November 1952 can
be positively attributed to any particular photographer. In
this instance, it was Lawson Insley who visited several
settlements in New Zealand between 1851–1853. His
clients were Civil Servants, Ministers of the Church and
successful trades people. When he fi nally left for Austra-
lia in 1853, he was one of the last itinerant photographers
who came to New Zealand before crossing the Tasman
Sea for more lucrative prospects in Australia.
After Insley, there was a gap of a year or so until 1855,
when John Nichol Crombie 1827–1878 a Glaswegian
who visited, provided portraits for whoever could pay
his fees. His contribution to New Zealand photography is
important for a number of reasons. First he experienced
the transition from daguerreotype to collodion positives
(ambrotypes) and then fi nally to the wet plate negatives
which allowed paper prints to be made from a collodion
negative. Secondly, his achievements in photography are
easy to document because of numerous comments made
about him in newspapers of the day. From all accounts,
he was very outgoing and attracted attention wherever
he went in New Zealand and overseas. During a brief
visit to where he was born in 1862, he lectured the
Glasgow Photographic Association on his New Zealand
experiences. This event was duly reported in the British
Journal of Photography which included some interesting
statistics concerning how many portraits he made as a
daguerreotypist in New Zealand. Thus we have a very
good picture of his life and times as a pioneer photog-
rapher who spent nearly all of his professional years
in New Zealand. While portraiture naturally remained
his main source of livelihood, he periodically covered
topical events, from a Royal Tour to Civil Engineering
Projects in Auckland.
The constant fl ow of photographers between Aus-
tralia to New Zealand continued in the 1850s and into
the next decade following gold discoveries in both the
North and South Islands.
Daniel Louis Mundy 1816/7–1881 was born in
Wiltshire, England, and arrived in Dunedin in 1864
with suffi cient capital to take over William Meluish’s
photographic business. Two years later he moved to