Tales of Old Thames

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 109, 29 July 1927, Page 8

Tales of Old Thames

Totara Pa Struggle Proclamation of Gold Field LONG before the pakeha came lusting after the yellow metal, the sheltered bays of the Firth of Thames made pleasant harbour and good Ashing for the Ngatimaru, a strong tribe which at the beginning of the 19th century could raise 5,000 fighting men. They were always ready to meet their rivals, the Ngapuhi, of Kerikeri, Bay of Islands.

TN IS2O, Hongi and Waikato, chiefs A of the Ngapuhi, went to England with a missionary friend and there they were lionised. They came back with muskets and ammunition, and ■when they broke the journey in Sydney as the guests of the Rev. Samuel Marsden, they exchanged ail the useless gifts like ploughs and tools for more guns. In Sydney also was Hinaki, chief of the Ngatimaru, who had been dissuaded from going to England to get firearms by the Rev. Samuel. The rival chiefs travelled back to New Zealand by the same ship, and Hongi, having learnt that one of his tribesmen had been killed by a Ngatimaru, declared to Hinaki that he would be mightily revenged. The Ngatimaru, warned by Hinaki, toiled to put their stronghold at Totara in fighting order. The pa was a triumph of military skill. Its front

rose abruptly from the strip of land running to the seashore and was unassailable, Away to the north and west stretched the Hauraki Gulf, and In the south and south-west acres and acres of swamp and forest made attack impossible from that quarter. The Kaueranga stream ran at the back of the pa. Feverish Work Feverishly worked the Ngatimaru to strengthen and provision their stronghold against the siege. One October morning in 1821 the look-out saw the great fleet of Hongi’s with his 800 warriors moving swiftly over the placid water. The Ngapuhi leader realised the strength of Totara pa at a glance, and being too wise a tactician to make an attack, he marauded the country for some days. Then some of the Ngapuhi returned and spoke of peace to the Ngatimaru, who accepted the terms and allowed 50 of the enemy chiefs to enter the pa. Hongi did not enter its gates, but he accepted the present of a greenstone mere called “Te Uira,” as a pledge that there was peace. This famous old mere- has recently been presented to the Auckland Museum. The Discovery of Gold The richness of the Cape Colvillr Peninsula was a thing undreamt of until October, 1852, when Charles Ring, a recent arrival in Auckland from California, was spurred to prospecting by the reward of £SOO offered for the discovery of a payable goldfield. He returned to announce that he had found gold in the vicinity of Coromandel Harbour. A commission which viewed the field was doubtful if it was rich enough or extensive enough, hut Auckland became wildly

excited over the prospect of an Eldorado a few miles away. Three thousand miners flocked to the place, hut the rush died out in a few months through the heavy tax, difficulties with the natives and lack of encouraging specimens. Ring was never granted the reward. The gold lust had been roused, however, and in the years which followed rumours came through of the finding of rich "patches.” One of the Thames pioneers, Mr. Isaac G. Carrie, says that he remembers a Maori, whom his father had met at the diggings at Summer Hill, in New South "Wales, and who had worked on a claim in Appo’s Flat, Nelson, coming back from a visit to Thames relatives in 1564 with specimens of quartz and gold .... This was probably the first gold found at the Thames. Commissioner’s Story The first commissioner of the goldfields, Mr. James Mackay, has said that he was informed that there was gold at Hauraki in his conversations with the Ngatimaru chief, Taipari, and his son. But at that time the Hauhaus had retreated from the Waikato in no amicable mood and were overrunning Hikutaia. Ohinemuri and Piako. It was not until the Hauhau difficulties were over that the suggestion of gold could be looked into. . . . Though the Ngatimaru tribe was obstinately against the opening up of any ground for prospecting . Mr. Mackay managed to open the small block between the Hape and Karaka streams. Two Europeans, Williamson and Smallman, failed to find gold, but some considerable time afterwards tw’O Maoris discovered some in the face of a hill near the Karaka stream. The discovery was immediately an - nounced to Judge Rogan, who was holding the first sitting of the Native Land Court at Kaueranga, and he and the chief Taipari brought the specimens to Auckland. The deputycommissioner of Auckland, Dr. Daniel Pollen, was at his wits’ end with the slump and the unemployment and he welcomed the prospect of a goldfield as the salvation of the province. After selecting 10 men with experience in mining, Mr. Mackay left for Thames in the cutter Cornstalk. They were looking for alluvial gold, being entirely ignorant about the working of reefs and they found It by the Karaka stream. On Tuesday, July 30, 1867, Dr. Pollen officially proclaimed as a goldfield that block of land between the Kuranui stream in the north and the Kakaramata stream in the south, a distance of not quite two miles, which area did not include the Waiotahi. On Thursday, August, 1, Commissioner Mackay with about 60 prospectors and two constables arrived in the paddlesteamer Enterpise No. 2, and camped at the native village of Kaueranga, which afterwards was to be known as morrow, began the attempt to wrest Shortland. So, 60 years ago tothe treasure from the rugged line of hills in the Thames Valley.