These men are on the deck of a truck in Heretaunga St to get a better view of the carnival parade in 1932 to celebrate Hastings' rebuilding after the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.
Note the European man in the foreground dressed in Maori clothing for whatever reason (which was not uncommon when parades were held).
Every grand occasion in Hawke's Bay was apparently worth a parade - whether it was Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, the end of the Boer War in 1902, or the Napier Mardi Gras festivals of the early 20th century.
In 1981, Ronald Stanley King told me that, when Germany had surrendered to the Allies in 1945, his employer (and Hastings Mayor) Algernon Rainbow asked for suggestions on how to celebrate the victory.
Ron suggested a parade with a fire engine - and to his surprise, a fire engine arrived outside the offices of Rainbow and Hobbs in Queen St.
Young Ron perched on the back for the duration of the impromptu parade.