Planning was a hallmark of the New Zealand Company settlements. The company’s founder, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, had a vision of rural society supported by towns. Images such as this view of Nelson in 1842 were used to promote his ideal to prospective immigrants. The settlement is evocative of an English hamlet, with groups of houses and dirt tracks meandering over fields. In the foreground a surveyor and assistant run a line, while workers construct a new house for a family living under canvas.
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Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference:
PUBL-0011-06-2
Hand-coloured lithograph after a drawing by John Waring Saxton
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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