New Zealand - General Motors Plant - Petone - 1926 - by Gordon Burt, Gordon H. Burt Ltd. General Motors New Zealand Limited - Opened in 1926 in Petone - The first and most notable New Zealand plant for assembling motor vehicles - It produced all manner of vehicles over the years, from Chevrolets to Pontiacs to Vauxhalls and Holdens - By 1936 over 37,000 vehicles had been produced. - With the advent of World War II, the factory was converted to munitions production, and the for the next six years a host of products and by-products were produced to host the war effort. - A new assembly plant was also opened in Trentham in 1967. - The Petone plant was eventually closed down in 1984 and the Trentham plant followed suite in 1990. - They had produced 593,945 vehicles in total between them. - Todd Motors Industries Limited was also set up in Petone (1934) for the assembly of completed knocked down vehicles from Chrysler and Rootes. - It was producing around 100,000 cars a year by 1964, aquired the Mitsubishi franchies by 1970, but was sold to Mitsubishi in 1987. (Reference: read more at https://digitalnz.org/stories/5754f88dfb002c0d9d007166) Gordon Burt - 1893 - 1968 - Born and raised in Christchurch, Gordon Burt was an inventive photographer and a pioneer for commercial photography in New Zealand. - He moved to Wellington in 1915 with the intention of enlisting to serve in the First World War but was turned away due to his poor eyesight. After deciding to remain in Wellington he found a job with a local photographer and eventually opened his own commercial photography business in 1924, Gordon Burt Ltd. - He was quickly successful due to a number of innovative techniques he employed including montage effects and superimposition. Burt would primarily work with numerous garment manufacturers. - During the 1940's he developed his own method of colour printing named 'Tru-Colour' for which he would file a patent with the United States PAtent Office. it became one of the most successful methods of colour photography available to New Zealand at the time. - Gordon Burt would retire in 1965, and passed away in 1968. In 1970 2,500 of his negatives were saved from a building on the verge of being demolished and are now stored at Te Papa. Image source: General Motors Plant - Petone, 1926, Petone, by Gordon Burt, Gordon H. Burt Ltd. Purchased 1999 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa (B.069302) https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/541280