Dunedin Labour Day parade, 1894

Labour Day parade in Dunedin, 1894.

If you click on the thumbnail above you can see one of the floats has a banner reading 'Otago Central Railway We Must Have It'. From the beginning Labour Day parades were often used to draw attention to other political or economic issues – in this case urging the government to complete a controversial regional transport project. Work on the Otago Central Railway had begun in 1879, but progress was slow. The line would not reach Cromwell until 1921.

See also: newspaper report of this parade (PapersPast).