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Story: Energy supply and use

Firewood for school

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Firewood for school

The children of Reporua Native School, near Ruatoria on the North Island’s East Coast, collect firewood to heat their school in 1910. Through the 19th and well into the 20th century the collection of firewood in rural New Zealand remained an essential and unchanged activity.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: 1/2-049742; F

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

Megan Cook, Energy supply and use – Energy before the 20th century, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/24001/firewood-for-school (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Megan Cook, published 12 April 2010.