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“Movie Bug Has Really Got Peter - He's Got Millions Of Feet Of Film To Prove It”

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Description: This image was published in the December 3rd, 1978 edition of the Tribune weekly newspaper, with the caption: “Peter holds one of his more unusual records - behind him is some of his collection of projectors and old record players.”

An excerpt from the feature article read: “When Feilding's Peter Edwards decides to show home movies for a few friends he can certainly promise something different. He's got the biggest collection of privately-owned film in Australasia.

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“…he has the only copy of film in existence showing the Right Honourable William Massey's funeral in the 1920's. It was found in a fowlhouse. (Restored, it's now in the National Archives.)”

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“Then he found the only copy of "Frances of Fielding" (sic) - a film made in the 1920's in Feilding and including Feilding identities. The film was found in Feilding's burnt-out Tivoli Theatre, and it took him three months to restore. three months to restore. Copies of the film were made. One is now in the National Archives, and the other is in the Feilding Borough Council's safe. Peter presented the film to the district after showing it during the Manchester Block centenary. The film was a highlight of the centenary. Peter said it was originally commissioned back in the 1920's by Feilding's Groombridge family.”

The oldest film he has is a practically unused copy of George Mieles "Trip To The Moon", made in 1902. It's a better copy than the New York Museum of Arts and Sciences possesses. He's also got a 1901 28 mm hand-cranked Pathe projector to run it through, only one of seven left in the world. The hand-cranked machine generates its own light. Peter got to it only five minutes before it was due to be tossed on to a fire in Wellington "I just about had a fit when I saw it," he said.”

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“Some of the old nitrate films in the country are now getting into a dangerous state of decomposition, and Peter says he can get them copied on to more modern film before they are lost forever. "I'll be collecting until the day I die” he said. In the event of his family not wanting to maintain in the collection, he's made plans for it to be turned over to the National Archives. Either that, or the stuff he's collected could form the basis for a Feilding museum.”

Peter Edwards' collection later evolved into Foxton's MAVtech museum: https://mavtech.org.nz/

These images form part of the Manawatū Evening Standard Negative Collection. Unfortunately, only negatives between April and December 1978 are held.