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Story: Weekends

Crowd at the Days Bay water chute, 1910s

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Crowd at the Days Bay water chute, 1910s

This is a Sunday crowd at the water chute in Days Bay, on Wellington Harbour, in the 1910s. Despite sabbatarian opposition, many people used their Sundays for recreation. In response, transport companies organised Sunday excursion ferries and trains. In the 1890s entrepreneur John Williams set up a recreation resort at Days Bay, a popular site for Sunday excursionists from Wellington.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Sydney Charles Smith Collection (PA-Group-00242)

Reference: 1/1-022709-G

by Sydney Charles Smith

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

Peter Clayworth, Weekends – Origins of the weekend – the Sunday sabbath, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/39777/crowd-at-the-days-bay-water-chute-1910s (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Peter Clayworth, published 30 November 2012.