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Challenge 9: Blast from the Past
Roll life back a hundred years and you wouldn't recognise yourself, or your surroundings.
No designer jeans, sunnies or fluoro gear - no KFC or McDonalds! Forget trainers
and anti-shock CD players. There were no gyms - your life already had plenty of
exercise. (Hands up those for wood chopping. You'd have to heat your home, your
water and cook you food using it!) A lot more time would have been spent
doing daily chores. Most women would have been hand washing bedding and clothes
with soap, twisting water out and hanging them to dry - okay on a sunny day, but
there were no electric dryers then. Reefton, in 1886, was the first place in the
Southern Hemisphere to have electricity; but Christchurch didn't get it until
1902. Think how many time-saving devices were unavailable: vacuum cleaners, hair
dryers, microwaves. You can also forget about texting on your celly (although
there were telephones), or emailing on your computer! Leisure time was
limited. If you wanted to listen to music you'd have to be able to play it yourself.
There were no movies, radios weren't widespread until after 1910 and New Zealand
didn't have TV until 1960. Instead, people got together more for entertainment,
to play cards, to picnic after church on Sundays and help each other with farm
work. They'd travel on horseback, in horse-drawn carriages, or on early bicycles.
Some places you could go by train. Horses pulled farm machinery. Cars weren't
common here until Ford's 1908 Model T and tractors weren't invented. Overseas
travel took weeks by sea (planes were still dreams) so going on an OE really was
a big deal and articles would appear in local newspapers telling how 'Mr and Mrs
John Smith of Nelson travelled to London to attend their son's wedding.' Of
course there were good things to be said for this era - no car smashes, traffic
jams on motorways (no motorways!), and no pollution from car exhausts. On the
other hand, you'd have to watch when crossing the street that you didn't step
in horse manure! The unpaved streets got pretty muddy - not too good when skirts
were long. The rivers were quite filthy because most factories and hospitals just
dumped waste into them - there were no Greenies around to keep an eye on things.
Wealthier girls didn't have to earn money. Once they left school they were
dependent on their father until they got married, and after that, on their husband.
However, working class girls laboured in factories like woolen mills or as servants,
often in miserable conditions with miserly pay. However, New Zealand women changed
history. They petitioned Parliament (a men's only institution then) until it passed
a law in 1893 to allow women to vote in elections. New Zealand women were the
first in the world to be given this right. Of course, some advances have
a downside - the discovery of nuclear power, for example. Check out some libraries
or on the web and decide for yourself. You may like to try these: - The
Way We were is a book series of historical photos for every area of New Zealand
- For a first-hand view of colonial life, Constance Astley's Trip
to New Zealand 1897-1898.
- Gwenda Turner's Christchurch is a really
neat book packed with photos, illustrations, and things like old tram tickets.
Check on the web. Try putting timeline into www.searchnz.co.nz.
Most libraries have a time line of historical events on their websites. So,
go on - have a blast! You'll be amazed at what you find. | 
