May 2018 Project Martha – Historical & Archaeological Background 11 Goldmining in Waihi Early Prospecting, 1860s-1892 Quartz outcrops in the Waihi area drew European explorers and prospectors to the region long before Ohinemuri was officially declared a goldfield. The earliest recorded discovery of gold was made at Waihi Beach by Jonathan Brown, John Macpherson, William J. Gundry, Arthur A. Crapp, and John S. Talbot in 1868. The party wrote a claim to Superintendent Gillies in 1870, which may have included what is now Waihi township and Martha (Pukewa) Hill, although there is no evidence to suggest their claim was awarded (Figure 8).33 Sir James Hector, a Scottish-born geologist, visited Waihi in 1870 and made reference to quartz reefs in a subsequent geological report. Hector observed the efforts of earlier prospectors and noted the ‘places where the ground has been tried.’34 Following the opening up of the Ohinemuri goldfield in 1875 large numbers of diggers flocked to the nearby areas of Karangahake, Mackaytown, Waitekauri and Owharoa, although the quartz gold hills (as opposed to alluvial gold) proved to be ‘no El Dorado’.35 Prospectors Daniel Leahy and Scott O’Neill discovered payable gold at Waitekauri and in 1876 they travelled eastwards to Waihi, where they set up camp and began to examine the quartz reefs of the Rosemont and Silverton hills.36 The pair were followed by Corbett and Merriman, who tested the same area, although neither of the parties were able to find workable gold and the reef was dismissed as ‘buck’ or barren.37 The first successful prospecting for payable gold in Waihi [township] was undertaken by John McCombie and Robert Lee in 1878. Travelling eastwards from the Waitekauri diggings the pair noticed: ‘…quartz comprising the outcrop of the now famous lode glistening beneath the rays of the morning sun; and when we came to the Mangatoetoe Stream the first dish of rubble panned gave a good prospect of free gold. This convinced us that we were in an auriferous region, and we hastened on to an outcrop of the lode, looming sharply up on the cone of Pukewa (later Martha Hill and Mine) spur, which rises abruptly out of the plain to a height of about 250 feet. We soon covered the intervening space and had out picks at work breaking out ore from its rugged walls.’38 McCombie and Lee observed that ‘the outcrops of several other reefs were visible on adjacent hills’, which would have included the Rosemont-Union and Amaranth lodes, and continued to test the lode on Pukewa by driving a crosscut of about 200 feet from the 33 P.R. Moore, ‘Discovery of Gold at Waihi Beach’, Ohinemuri Regional History Journal, 43, September 1999, accessed via: http://www.ohinemuri.org.nz/journals/71-journal-43-september-1999/1567-discoveryof-gold-at-waihi-beach 34 Nellie Scott Climie, Waihi Borough Council Diamond Jubilee¸ 1902-1962, Paeroa, 1962, p.37; Wanganui Herald, 18 January 1870, p.2; J. Hector, ‘Geological Structure of the Kaimanawa Range’, Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 3, 1870, pp.16-17. 35 Barber 1985, pp.33-4; Climie 1962, p.37. 36 Climie 1962, p.37; J.B. McAra, Gold Mining at Waihi, 1878-1952, Waihi, 1988, p.28. Note: Rosemont was the first name for the hill containing the Amaranth, Union and Rosemont claims. Rod Clough, Simon Best and Ray Hooker, 2004, Union Hill Waihi: A Heritage Assessment. Clough & Associates report prepared for Newmont Waihi Gold, p.15. 37 Ibid.; Don Lockwood, Pukewa Waihi, Waihi, 2003, p.72. Note: Climie records the names of the second pair of prospectors as Corbett and Marriman. 38 New Zealand Herald, 23 June 1894, p.1 (Supplement).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjE2NDg3