NZ rural idyll in days gone by

Today's picture is a painting called Hawkins by Rata Lovell-Smith from 1933, of which we have had a print on our office wall for some years. The original is now in the Christchurch public art gallery - info. It conjures up the simple, unhurried stress-free country life, before the pace of life became today's "do everything and get everywhere as fast as possible."

Hawkins was a stop on the 18 km Whitecliffs Branchline which joined the Midland Line at Darfield; it closed like many other branch lines in the early 1960s. The painting seems to show an AB-hauled steam train approaching from further along.