May 2018 Project Martha – Historical & Archaeological Background 6 government’s acting civil commissioner at Thames, prompted Unaki, a Hau Hau spokesman, to voice the following: ‘Ohinemuri will not be ceded to the government. If any of the Maoris sell or lease, they will not allow government or pakeha to have peaceful possession. Never! Hauraki is all that the pakeha should have. Work there and enjoy the benefits. You may ask for Ohinemuri, but you will never get it. That word was for ever.’25 Gold mining prospectors and the Crown were largely excluded from the Ohinemuri area until the 1870s. In 1871 Te Hira warriors barred the Queen’s mail from being carried from Ohinemuri to Waihi.26 Hau Hau war parties regularly drove off gold prospectors and there were threats to disallow all boat transport along the Waihou River.27 The Pai Marire maintained a presence in the region until the mid-1870s; however, the gradual surveying and hearing of claims through the Maori Land Court, and the growing government practice of advancing loans (raihana) which were expected to be repaid in land payment, eventually diminished their influence as a political power.28 The vestiges of the Hau Hau movement were overcome by the government proclamation of Ohinemuri as an official goldfield on 3 March 1875 (Figure 7).29 The announcement also quashed the proposed retention of the Ohinemuri as a Maori reserve.30 The reaches of the goldfield made their way towards Waihi by the late 1870s and one of the earliest gold prospectors in the area, John McCombie, described Waihi as: ‘…comprising thickly wooded hills and open plain, the latter being covered over with a stunted growth of fern and Manuka scrub indicating poverty of the soil. At the time of which I write [1878] there were no Europeans in the locality, and only a few Natives belonging to the Ngatikoe [Ngati Koi] Tribe who lived on the bank of the Ohinemuri River about a mile and a half from the present Waihi Township.’31 European settlement expanded rapidly around the Waihi goldmines from the late 1870s onwards and by 1882 the nearest Maori owned land to the township was the Mangakiri reserve for Ngati Koi at Waitete, south-east of Waihi.32 25 Barber 1985, p.26. 26 Waitangi Tribunal, The Hauraki Report (Volume Two) Wai 686, Wellington, 2006, p.420. 27 Barber 1985, p.26. 28 Waitangi Tribunal, The Hauraki Report (Volume Two) Wai 686, Wellington, 2006, pp.421-422. 29 Ibid., pp.422-423; Barber 1985, p.27. 30 Ibid. 31 J.B. McAra, Gold Mining at Waihi, 1878-1852¸Waihi, 1988, pp.29-30. Note: Caroline Phillips argues that McCombie was in error when he wrote about the poverty of the soil at Waihi and contends that ‘the fern and manuka scrub indicated that the area had been cleared for gardening purposes by Maori and left to regenerate.’ Phillips 2000, p.8. 32 Waitangi Tribunal, The Hauraki Report (Volume Two) Wai 686, Wellington, 2006, p.447.
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