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Story: Whitebait and whitebaiting

Holding tanks and horseback

Video file

Up until the 1950s South Westland had few roads, and transporting whitebait to market from isolated rivers was difficult. In some places live whitebait were kept in boxes in the river, and pack horses were sometimes used to get them out to a road end, cannery, airstrip or boat.

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Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga

Reference: New Zealand Mirror 7. National Film Unit, 1950

Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any re-use of this material.

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How to cite this page

Carl Walrond, Whitebait and whitebaiting – Nets, screens and canneries, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/11709/holding-tanks-and-horseback (accessed 25 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 1 March 2009.