The Te Aroha battery, erected in 1881

Abstract

As a local battery was a basic requirement for the field, after some proposals came to nothing a meeting held in January 1881 agreed to form a company to erect and operate one. Although prominent members of the new field were elected as provisional directors, raising capital was a slow process, as many potential investors feared to lose their investments. Once two-thirds of the capital was raised, the Te Aroha Quartz Crushing Company, formed in February, was registered in April. Its shareholders came from a wide area and had very varied occupations. A reconditioned battery, erected in what would become Boundary Street in Te Aroha, was opened with much festivity and optimism in April. It was handicapped by a lack of roads from the mines and insufficient water power, and when the first crushing made the poverty of the ore very apparent it closed after working for only two months. Being such a bad investment, shareholders were reluctant to pay calls. Sold in 1883 but not used, after being sold again in 1888 its machinery was removed; the building itself was destroyed in the following year in one of Te Aroha’s many gales.