Bakers strike is very old news
An odd piece of news film titled "Chinese Bakers' Strike" has been found by the New Zealand Film Archive.
The footage is dated 1912 and shows a parade down Auckland's Queen
St, complete with brass band, giant cake floats and cheerfully
strolling lines of bakers.
The film is amongst the many items found by Film Archive
national programmes manager Jane Paul, who has travelled to Australia
and Europe visiting archives and museums to repatriate classic film
footage.
The "Bakers Strike" footage has Ms Paul mystified.
"What's strange is that the Chinese in New Zealand then weren't as a
rule bakers. And if they were, they worked for family businesses and
wouldn't have been on strike," Ms Paul said.
Some sort of Labour Day parade was the best guess, Ms Paul said.
Other
footage found by Ms Paul includes images of the Invincibles rugby tour
of 1924, Maori soldiers before the Gallipoli campaign, and the visits
abroad of New Zealand dignitaries. These sit alongside amateur film
material and lost images of sporting and news events from long ago.
Many of the gems from the repatriated material have been collated into an 80-minute historical journey named Lost and Found.
The programme is available for Film Archive visitors in Wellington.
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