Camera obscura

Looks like this is especially for the American car buffs. It’s a parade of new Chevrolets in 1939 we think probably later in the year.

There appears to be eleven cars and all but the front one are saloons. The two-door coupe was common particularly pre-war. Chev & Ford both built them in reasonable quantities. These JB models were rugged vehicles of 3.4 litres. Power output was probably around 90/110bhp. The leading car carries a ‘dealer’ plate while the second car has a banner announcing (we think) ‘New 1939 Chevrolet’. It would be interesting to know just how many of these came into New Zealand - they seemed for years to be all over the place.

In the Royal Theatre on the right, Strange Faces and The Lone Wolf in Paris were 1938 releases.

Contributed by Perry Rice, Heritage Librarian – Photographs, Hamilton Central Library. If you have any information you would like to pass on or would like to buy an electronic copy of the photo, please e-mail perry.rice@hcc.govt.nz quoting HCL_09101 Today the names Crump and Moriarty have a certain literary resonance. 110 years ago a New Zealander called Crump proved himself anything but a good keen man whilst a woman who answered to the name Moriarty was less Sherlock Holmes villain than tragic victim.

The Crump-Moriarty story had its origins nearly three decades earlier.

In 1880 the eminent English surgeon Dr. Crump died, leaving an estate of some 40,000 pounds.

His nephew, John Langford Crump, who resided near Auckland, believed he would be provided for.

Unfortunately, Dr Crump had other ideas, leaving his antipodean relative a mere 150 pounds.

Moreover, he stipulated that John Crump be denied the right to contest the will or even to travel back to England in such an attempt.

Another, more distant relative of Dr Crump was a Mr Moriarty, a barrister who had a practice in Hobart.

Moriarty inherited the bulk of the estate.