Skip to main content

Story: International economic relations

General Motors plant, Petone, Wellington, 1940s

Image
General Motors plant, Petone, Wellington, 1940s

General Motors opened this plant near Wellington in 1926 to assemble cars for the local market, to complement imports from its Canadian plant. This photo was taken in the 1940s, by which time regulations favoured local assembly and relatively few cars were imported.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Gordon H. Burt Collection (PA-Group-00743)

Reference: 1/1-015617; F

by Gordon Burt

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.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Malcolm McKinnon, International economic relations – The US and New Zealand, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/24809/general-motors-plant-petone-wellington-1940s (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Malcolm McKinnon, published 2 March 2010.