Te Aroha Mining District Working Papers

 

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:

Recently Added

  • William Morris Newsham: a prospector and miner in the Te Aroha district

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    New Zealand-born William Morris Newsham fought against Maori without suffering any mishaps, but when aged 35 had the most perilous experience of his life. When assisting to survey a potential railway line in the King ...

  • Two Roycroft brothers and two of their brothers-in-law, all miners at Te Aroha

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    James and William Roycroft commenced their mining careers at Thames, where they were notable athletes, especially James. But James also became notable for being accused of theft, violence, and excessive drinking. Both men ...

  • Prospectors and investors in the Te Aroha mining district during the 1930s

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    This paper gives the ages, occupations, normal place of residence, mining experience, and other details that have been unearthed about all the men who acquired prospecting licenses and of five men who prospected for others ...

  • Robert John Michael: a Te Aroha labourer

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    An Irishman, Michael prospected at Waihi before settling in Te Aroha in late 1882, where he owned several worthless mines close to that settlement and also at Stoney Creek. He also acquired and developed farmland on the ...

  • James Gordon: a ‘useful all-round man’ at Te Aroha and elsewhere

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    Some confusion over the early details of James Gordon’s life is unavoidable because his birth was not registered and there were several namesakes. Born to an Irish father and a Maori mother, after the latter reputedly ...

  • ‘Revolting murder at Te Aroha’ in 1881

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    The brutal murder of Hamiona Haira, who had been mining with his two brothers and his father-in-law, shocked the new settlement. Being a member of Ngati Koi and Ngati Hako, these hapu threatened utu on the Pakeha responsible, ...

  • William Grey Nicholls and Rihitoto Mataia

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    The son of a Pakeha Maori, Nicholls had an illustrious ancestry on his mother’s side, and his wife Rihitoto Mataia also had a distinguished whakapapa. From the 1870s Nicholls farmed in Ohinemuri, and as a licensed interpreter ...

  • Thomas Gavin: ‘Tommy Chairman’, a mine manager and local government politician at Te Aroha

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    After starting mining on the Thames goldfield at the age of 17, Thomas Gavin quickly became a competent miner. As later at Te Aroha, he was active in the wider community, especially as a rower and a Volunteer. After ...

  • Introductory notes to working paper series ‘a social history of mining in the Te Aroha mining district’

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    These working papers are provided as a resource for historians and genealogists. When covering the lives of individuals, they are deliberately as detailed as possible – possibly too detailed on such aspects as land ownership, ...

  • Charles Gould: a farmer living near Te Aroha

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    Coming from a wealthy family and with a brother who became a successful businessman, Charles Gould left the South Island to settle in Waitoa with every prospect of making a success of the large estate he had acquired. ...

  • The drink problem in the Te Aroha district

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    This paper deals with the downside of drinking alcohol, not with its pleasures experienced by those indulging. Public drunkenness was always deplored, in part because it led to accidents and to criminal behaviour, in ...

  • Lavinia and Henry Dunbar Johnson

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    Rawinia Manukau, of Ngati Tamatera, married Henry Dunbar Johnson in 1868, when aged 21. Johnson had been a storekeeper at Coromandel from 1863 onwards and after 1866 had the first store at the site of the future Paeroa. ...

  • William Buchanan Maxwell: a veteran who became ‘Te Aroha’s pet adornment’

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    Famous in Te Aroha as a veteran soldier, Maxwell had fought in the Crimea, China, and India before fighting against Maori in New Zealand. Proud of his four wounds, he would lead a detachment of volunteers marching off to ...

  • William Archibald Murray: a Piako farmer who invested in Waiorongomai mines

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    Proudly Scottish and from a sheep-farming family boasting a distinguished lineage, William Archibald Murray settled in Otago with his brothers in 1858 and acquired a large estate. A successful farmer, he was elected to ...

  • Maori and mining in New Zealand and beyond

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    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 ...

  • George Devey: a Te Aroha carpenter and his family

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    A cabinetmaker, George Devey brought his wife and young family to New Zealand in 1864, accompanied by his brother Jess, a blacksmith. After settling in Thames, from 1883 onwards they lived in Te Aroha, where George erected ...

  • Edward Kersey Cooper: mine manager and mine owner in Hauraki

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    After having a variety of occupations in several countries, Edward Kersey Cooper arrived in New Zealand in 1880 to manage a manganese mine. From 1881 onwards, he was involved in Hauraki mining, commencing with the Waiorongomai ...

  • The strike at Waiorongomai in 1884

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    After the initial crushing produced lower returns than expected, the decision of mine owners to reduce costs by cutting wages provoked a strike to retain the former rates of pay. A particular cause of the sense of injustice ...

  • Social relations and class divisions in the Te Aroha district

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    Although the nature of mining encouraged mateship amongst miners, this ideal was weakened as companies increasingly dominated mining districts. As miners liked to work for themselves to obtain the highest possible financial ...

  • Private lives in the Te Aroha district, mostly in the nineteenth century

    Hart, Philip (Historical Research Unit, University of Waikato, 2016)
    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 ...

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