Charles Peet Dawes

His photographic collections held at Auckland Libraries being added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao register in 2019. Dawes' work has been exhibited by Auckland Libraries, the Te Ahu Centre in Kaitaia and the Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi.

• Name — Charles Peet Dawes • Born — 1867 • Birthplace — Swadlincote, England • Died — 1947 • Occupation — Photographer

Dawes was born in Swadlincote, England in 1867. He arrived in New Zealand in February 1879 when his family emigrated from England. The Dawes family likely originally intended to settle at Timaru, however due to the Special Village Settlement Scheme of 1886 which provided leasehold land to settlers, the family moved to Kohukohu in Northland, where Dawes purchased land.

Dawes worked various jobs in Kohukohu, including a mailman, carrier, night soil collector, farmer and orchardist. Town records indicate that Dawes was a vestryman at the local church, and performed in the annual Kohukohu Christmas pantomimes. By 1888, Dawes had begun taking photographs, and is thought to have taken his first commission as a professional photographer around the year 1892. Dawes began advertising himself as a professional photographer from the early 1900s. Dawes kept in contact with other pioneer photographers in the wider area, including New Zealand Herald photographer William Gordon-Jones, Daniel Mapowder Warren, of whom Dawes took the only known photographs of, and Enos Pegler, who appeared to assist Dawes with connections for his images to be published in newspapers. Dawes' photographs focused on the Hokianga Harbour area communities and included many portraits of his own family members. Dawes was one of the few photographers to document the Dog Tax War of 1898, which were published in the New Zealand Graphic. The New Zealand Graphic and Auckland Weekly News published several other photographs of Dawes, but for the most part, many of his photographs had little commercial value. Dawes ran his photographic studio until the mid-1920s. During this time period, Dawes purchased an acre farm on Te Tio Road at Umawera and moved there with his family.

In 1901, Dawes married Jessie Allen (née Bryers), widow of William McIlreen Allen. Prior to the marriage, Allen had five children before she had been widowed. Allen had a further five children with Dawes between 1902 and 1908.

• Illustration — Hokianga Harbour in May 1911 • Illustration — Green Meadows Temperance Hotel in Kaitaia • Illustration — Waimamaku School Picnic (1900) • Illustration — Two women in a garden outside a house in Kohukohu (c. 1900s)