More Info →Evans Family Collection: Mrs Evans in the kitchen, 5 Mansford Place

A photographic series prepared by the Prime Minister’s Department in 1947 to attract British migrants. The Evans family of 5 Mansford Place, Palmerston North were selected to show the living conditions of a typical New Zealand family. Betty Evans, an early tenant of the Savage Crescent state suburb, Palmerston North, in her modern kitchen. State house kitchens were functional with floor to ceiling cupboards, terrazzo bench tops and electric stoves such as the Atlas pictured here. The national state housing scheme was a huge stimulus to New Zealand manufacturers and between 1931 and 1957 200,000 Atlas stoves were produced by Christchurch based firm Scott Brothers.