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Kōrero: Popular music

New Zealand's first piano

Image
New Zealand's first piano

On 8 February 1840 Englishman George Hunter and his family landed on the beach at Petone to start a new life in New Zealand. The well-to-do Hunters brought many of their possessions with them, including a square piano made around 1825. It is likely that this was the first piano to arrive in New Zealand. It was donated to the National Museum by a Hunter family descendant in 1956. 

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Reference: PF000001

Permission of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Chris Bourke, Popular music – Early settlers, 18th and early 19th centuries, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/object/42573/new-zealands-first-piano (accessed 25 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Chris Bourke, i tāngia i te 16 September 2013.