Story: Intermarriage

Captain Flowers and companion

Holding the telescope that symbolises his profession, Captain Flowers poses with an unidentified woman in this photograph, taken in Whanganui in 1878. The woman, who may be from the West Indies, accompanied Flowers to New Zealand. She is an example of the non-Māori intermarriage partners who arrived in New Zealand from this period.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, William James Harding Collection (PAColl-3042)

Reference: 1/4-005003-G

by William James Harding

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Angela Wanhalla, Intermarriage – Intermarriage in colonial society, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/30247/captain-flowers-and-companion (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Angela Wanhalla, published 29 March 2011.

Comments

Melissa Bryant
09 June 2017

Kia ora! I see that the woman in this photograph has been identified as the Captain's wife Margaret by a visitor to the National Library https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22789926