A SHORT HISTORY OF PAEROA.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5432, 5 June 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

A SHORT HISTORY OF PAEROA.

The following is in the main part from an address delivered to the Paeroa Orphans’ Club on June 23, 1927 Paeroa was first settled by Europeans shortly after the close of the Maori war of 1863-4. At that time Maoris in the vicinity were very hostile, and several affrays occurred, fortunately without loss of life. However, the prospective danger was threatening enough for it to be deemed advisable to draft in armed constabulary, whose presence in the district for some time practically turned the newly formed township into a military encampment. The danger passed, and disputes were amicably settled ; the constabulary left, and soon the place was in the throes of gold mining. Paeroa being so favourably situated to the gold-producing areas, it naturally became the centre of the mining industry in Upper Thames and Ohinemuri. Mr James Mackie, the first Warden of the Hauraki Goldfields, was the original person instrumental in opening up the goldfields. It was he who first negotiated with the Maoris and started the industry. In 1875 Paeroa was gazetted as a town. The main street then was Cassrels Street, and there were five hotels, namely, Criterion, Belmont, All Nations, Commercial, and the Paeroa, the last-named also housing the local post office. About 1884 the first official post office was opened on the site near the present Courthouse, the original premises being the building now used as the police office. In 1885 the first newspaper was issued under the name of the “Hauraki Tribune,” being edited by Mr C. F. Mitchell. In September, 1890, an opposition paper was published—“ The Ohinemuri Gazette,” owned and edited by the late Mr Edwin Edwards. The “Gazette” survived its contemporary, the “Tribune,” and is at present published by W. D. Nicholas, Ltd., under’ the'name of the “Hauraki Plains Gazette;”

Following on the visit of several sailing vessels to Paeroa, the first direct steamer service from Auckland was instituted during the year 1886. The wharf was situated at the southern end of Arney Street, beyond the Commercial Hotel. Later the berthing places were removed to Wharf Street, and later still to a site straight out from the Dairy Company’s office. In 1894 the wharf was removed to the junction of the Waihou and Ohinemuri rivers, and the Northern Company, which entered the service in 1890, in 1899 put on more up-to-date steamers named the Waimarie and the Taniwha, the last-named still plying between Paeroa and Auckland. The trend of closer settlement in the district in 1898 induced the Government to extend the railway line from Te Aroha to Paeroa, and in the following year the service was extended from Paeroa to Thames. It is interesting to record that on this section the line was laid for about 20 years before the service was put into operation. Early settlers will no doubt remember that in 1899 the first creamery in this district was opened by Mr Wesley Spragg on a site at the corner of Norwood Avenue and Thames Road. The'years 1896-97 were boom years in mining circles in the district, at which time the Waihi goldfields were in full swing, and mining at Karangahake, Waikino, and Waitekauri was in, the thro.es of big doings. In 1888 the Government declared the Ohinemuri River to be a sludge channel, the dire results of which are only too patent to-day. A red-letter day in the history of the district was the opening of the branch line between Paeroa and Waihi in 1905. The ceremony was performed by the late Rt. Hon. R. J. Seddon, then Prime Minister of New Zealand. Prior to the opening of this line the whole of the carting from the steamers at Paeroa to the mining companies was done by waggons and horses, and it was a fairly common occurrence at that time for close on 500 horses to be on the road between Paeroa and Waihi. The increase of population and the progress of Paeroa caused some of the residents to become active in local politics, and, as a result, in 1915 the town was gazetted a borough. Paeroa’s first Mayor was Mr W. J. Towers, who retired and was succeeded by Mr P. E. Brenan, followed by the present Mayor, Mr W. Marshall. With the formation of the borough various loan moneys totalling £55,000 were authorised in 1920 by the ratepayers, and in due course street improvements and drainage and sewerage works were brought into operation and the town has continued to develop and prosper on sound, progressive lines.