Rising From the Golden Glow
Rising From the Golden Glow
Allan Kynaston 2012, Southern Heritage Trust, 40pp.
ISBN 978-0-473-21113-4
The book is available from the Southern Heritage Trust here.
Blurb
Alan Kynaston's 40-page book Rising from the Golden Glow includes 53 articles tracing the development and subsequent fortunes of some 70 businesses that had their origins in Dunedin during the period between the first gold rush and the 1890s, when the city was the commercial capital of New Zealand.
The businesses chosen for inclusion are for the most part those that grew to nationwide importance and/or were destined for long lives. A great many of them became household names throughout the country and a surprising number remain so.
The book, which is the product of several years of research, has been developed from the stunning wall posters created by the author for the 2011 Dunedin Heritage Festival exhibition at the BNZ building in Princes Street. It is fully illustrated and includes a page of references and an index of businesses. Coloured maps on the inside front and back covers show the locations of offices and factories, which are listed and numbered at the end of each article.
Mini Review
This is a POP page.
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Kynaston has researched the industries and enterprises of Dunedin in its gold rush days and after. The strength of the booklet is the many photos and diagrams of the buildings and works that were used by these undertakings. Many of them still survive, if next to none have their original owners and uses. The story of the decline of many of these industries is a little depressing. Not a few went with the removal of protection to local manufacturing in the 1970's on. Others seem to have ended their days being liquidated by corporate raiders, or through being rationalised - often to Auckland centralised manufacturing. Perhaps there is a story here of the inheritors of some of the industries lacking the management or technical skills, or just the entrepreneurial flair so apparent in the 19th century. For anyone resident in Dunedin in the middle of the 20th century this will also be a book that evokes memories of how Dunedin once was when the glow was still lingering.
