The River Wanganui

The River Wanganui
Directed by	Gaston Méliès
Produced by	Gaston Méliès
Release date	3 April 1913 (USA)
Running time	75 m (246 ft)
Country	France/New Zealand
Language	Silent

The River Wanganui is a 1913 documentary shot in New Zealand in 1912 on the 1912–13 South Pacific film-making voyage of French director Gaston Méliès. Like many of his films shot on that trip, it is now lost.

The film was released in the USA in 1913, and was described then as a "trip up New Zealand’s most picturesque river known as the Rhine of that country." The river is now called the Whanganui River.

In September 1912 press reports said that:

A later press report in October 1912 said that:

The Méliès Company party of 14 (excluding Edmund Mitchell the novelist, who was to write screenplays) left San Francisco on 24 June 1912, and by 4 November 1912 had left New Zealand for Australia. They were in Wellington for a week, and during two weeks in Rotorua they "took many pictures of Maori life, and had several of the most picturesque legends acted before the camera."

Méliès made three feature films in New Zealand during his stay. They are Hinemoa, How Chief Te Ponga Won His Bride and Loved by a Maori Chieftess. Méliès sent his film to the United States for post-production treatment, so it is doubtful if any were shown in New Zealand.

According to Sam Edwards, Méliès made five scenic films and three feature films or dramas in New Zealand. Other 1913 Méliès films about New Zealand from the Internet Movie Database (links below) are:

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