Te Aroha Mining District Working Papers

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https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/10304

This series of working papers focuses on the Te Aroha Mining District from 1880-1980, starting with the year when gold was discovered until when the environmental consequences of base metal mining were being tackled. Although the papers always contain a mining element, much more is covered, with background papers dealing not only with the geology and impacts on vegetation and the wider environment but also the consequence for iwi of the search for gold, including the sale of the Aroha Block. Interspersed with papers on the rise and fall of mining are others on some of the leading personalities of the time (and not just miners), which broaden the focus from being just about the Te Aroha district.

Supported by the Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato.

Click on each section below to see a full list of papers:

Maori and mining in New Zealand and beyond
(Working Paper, Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016) Hart, Philip
Before the arrival of Europeans, Maori had known of the existence of gold but did not mine it and had no understanding of its value. Once mining commenced in California in 1849 and Australia in the early 1850s, many Maori participated on several fields, especially in Victoria. When gold was first discovered in New Zealand, at Coromandel in 1852, Maori were keen to learn prospecting skills, and soon found gold in several parts of both the North and South Islands. Some alluvial claims were worked communally, even some women participating. From the start, Maori were determined to protect their rights against Pakeha when they were rivals for the same ground. On the Hauraki Peninsula, which had no alluvial gold, Maori were prospectors rather than miners. Some were successful, often going against the wishes of rangatira who, fearing that opening goldfields would result in their losing their land, refused access to prospectors, particularly in Ohinemuri. At Thames, Maori prospectors succeeded where Pakeha ones had failed, finding the gold that led to the 1867 rush; a rush encouraged by one rangatira in particular, Wirope Hoterene Taipari, who understood how a successful field would benefit him financially (including obtaining a reward for discovering a payable goldfield). After the opening of this field, some Maori prospected throughout the peninsula and elsewhere for the remainder of the century, with varying success but with some good finds, particularly at Kuaotunu. A few even participated in the Klondike rush. By the twentieth century, Maori were overcoming their reluctance to mine underground, notably in the coalmines of the Waikato, but until then almost none had seen mining as a full-time career. Indigenous inhabitants throughout the world successfully prospected for precious metals, but their achievements were commonly written out of history, as for example in Australia, where Aboriginal involvement is only now being uncovered. In New Zealand also, Maori achievements, although well known to contemporaries, have largely been forgotten. At the time, Maori prospector’s successes were praised and many became owners of claims, and in some cases benefited financially from their involvement in mining.
William Sharman Crawford (Billy) Nicholl, the prospector who discovered the Martha lode at Waihi: his life, told largely in his own words
(Working Paper, Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016) Hart, Philip
Billy Nicholl was that rare miner, one who recorded his life. Born in Ireland, when still a boy he arrived in New Zealand in 1862. After his father died at an early age, he acquired a step-father, whom he disliked, with good reason; and in her later years his mother’s mind would fade. From 1868, when he was probably aged 14, until shortly before his death, he was a prospector and miner. Excited by the early Thames mining days, he learnt the skills needed to be a successful prospector, and during the 1870s worked with several mates on the Coromandel field, with some success. After briefly participating in the Te Aroha rush of 1880, he saw from the summit of that mountain the outcrops of the Waihi reefs, and turned his attention to that largely unexplored area. Although there was considerable claim and counter-claim about who first explored the area and who first found gold, Nicholl was the first to discover a payable lode, the famous Martha. After telling his mates of his discovery, they marked out the line of reef and started to develop several claims. For a time Nicholl was in charge of developing his find, and took a leading part in attempting for form a company to work the ground, succeeding on the third attempt. For a while he operated the first battery. But in time he lost control over his discovery and, far from profiting, lost a large amount of money. After leaving Waihi for Karangahake, he would be forced into bankruptcy in 1884. His first experience of overseas prospecting was in Fiji, where he found traces of gold but nothing payable. Returning to Waihi, he struggled to earn a living for his young family, taking contracts and owning a small farm to supplement his mining endeavours, notably at Maratoto in the 1890s. During that decade his wife abandoned him and their children, and to make his fortune – and because of the lure of another gold rush – he went to Klondike, where he had many exciting experiences but, being unable to mine there, returned poorer than before. In Nicholl’s last years he did some farming but his main interest continued to be prospecting, and he explored the Waitekauri area into his eighties until declining health forced him to desist. In his later years he recorded details of his life, notably several versions of the discovery of the Martha lode, to the great benefit of posterity.
Te Aroha township during the first rush: 1880-1881
(Working Paper, Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016) Hart, Philip
The most exciting time for a mining township was during the first rush. At Te Aroha, canvas settlements appeared close to the hot pools and between the mountain and the river, and because of the high hopes for a payable field all the features of a permanent settlement soon appeared. Shops of all varieties were erected, the original hotel soon had competition, church sites were chosen, government offices appeared, and because so many of the settlers were family men a start was made to provide schooling and health care. Sport, horse racing, and other entertainments became part of social life, with the hot pools a particular focus for ‘rest and recreation’. Within a few months, more substantial buildings were erected (very necessary because of the high wind common to the district), better roads to and within the settlement were constructed, and a better punt across the river provided. As the prospects of the goldfield faded in 1881, so did the township, but the discovery of gold at Waiorongomai meant that it would quickly revive and indeed flourish.
Private lives in the Te Aroha district, mostly in the nineteenth century
(Working Paper, Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016) Hart, Philip
This paper is based mostly on gossip – deliberately so, for gossip can reveal details of the private lives of people who are otherwise lost to history. Usually it is not possible to identify them, but even if this is not possible a great deal of the social life of the community (mostly of its younger members) can be uncovered. No startling revelations are made, for residents (and visitors) behaved in predictable ways. After covering thematically the ways in which people interacted, the gossip mostly dealing with flirting and marriage, some examples of private lives (or rather, portions of these lives) are reconstructed.
Joseph Harris Smallman
(Working Paper, Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016) Hart, Philip
Born to a mining agent and trained as a mining surveyor, in 1864, less than a year after the birth of his first child, Smallman left England for New Zealand to establish a ‘Mining business’, promising that his family would join him once it was successful. But they were never asked to join him, and after 1870 he ceased to write to his wife. The ‘Mining business’ never eventuated, but in 1865 he prospected at Thames, unsuccessfully seeking alluvial gold. Although criticized for living off Maori and doing little prospecting, with his partner he investigated several areas of the Hauraki Peninsula, again unsuccessfully. When the Thames goldfield was opened, with his encouragement, two years later, he mined there for some years, proving himself to be a competent miner but not making his fortune. After working elsewhere, by the mid-1870s he was living with another man’s ‘half-caste’ wife on her land near Te Aroha, having five children with her. Happy to be described as a Pakeha Maori and closely associated with the local hapu, he supported them over land dealings and the development of the district. Despite spending most of his time farming, he remained interested in prospecting, and made some explorations in districts closed to Pakeha. After gold was found at Te Aroha, for a short time he worked with Maori partners in unprofitable claims. Either before or after his second wife had a child by another man in 1886, he left New Zealand to return to his English family; and remarkably, despite his first wife knowing that his liaison had produced children, she accepted him back after his long absence, and they remained together for the rest of their lives.