Thames Remembers

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 111, 1 August 1927, Page 9

Thames Remembers

Historic Gold Rush

Diamond Jubilee Celebrations

(THE SUN'S Special RepresentativeJ THAMES, To-day. THAMES is remembering its golden days and the ways of its pioneers. With receptions and church services and all the outward show of celebration, the townfolk and hundreds of visitors have been keeping green the memory of sixty years ago.

JjMIOM the ends of New Zealand and even from Australian States have come the hale ’ and hearty pioneers, many of them old enough to wear the badge of highest honour, the purple ribbon. This signifies that the wearer is a “pioneer,” and that he or she arrived in Thames between ’67 and ’7O, and was over 12 years of age by ’76. Gold ribbons and blue ribbons were awarded to the people who came in the next decades. HAIL TO THE PIONEERS A Maori haka made a spirited beginning to the reception to the pioneers held in the King’s Theatre on Saturday afternoon. The house was crowded. “I am glad to see that so many of those who made the history of the sixities are here in health and strength,” said the Mayor of Thames, Mr. William Bongard. “The younger generations appreciate the grit and endurance which you showed when you established a settlement on the gold field.” Instancing the pluck of the pioneer, Mr. Bongard told the story of one of the ’67 men who rowed to Auckland and back twice before he could get a marriage licence. The heroism shown by the miners after the disaster in the May Queen was a vivid memory. Thames, said Mr. Bongard, has been under the disadvantage that it had not been able tp depend upon one settled Industry. Now it was the centre of a rich farming district, and the completion of the bridge at Kopu should increase its prosperity. The discovery of rich gold was always a possibility. “A thousand hearty welcomes” were offered to the pioneers by Mr. E. Watson, chairman of the Jubilee executive. MINISTER’S “GERM” The Minister of Mines, tlie Hon. G. J. Anderson, explained that he had been bitten by the mining germ when he was taken on the Otago goldfields soon after the Gabriel’s Gully rush. Since then he had never got rid of the organism, and he sympathised with the belief in the pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow. Thames had produced over £ 7 million, and he had never heard of another field where battery stamps had actually been clogged with gold. If no British capital were available for the working of refractory ores, he saw no objection to the use of German money.

“I have often failed to get as much Government help for local ventures as I would have liked,” said Mr. T. W. Rhodes, M.P., amid laughter. He hoped that mining development would go ahead. Teritu Murray, who remembers the arrival of the Enterprise No. 2 in ’67, and Rawiri Tamaiwhiua, congratulated the pioneers on behalf of the Maoris. Mr. P. E. Cheal replied for the pioneers, and Mr. J. Linklater, M.P., an old Thomas boy, spoke. The Prime Minister had telegraphed his apology and felicitations. MAYOR’S GOLD CHAIN The twenty-second in the line of Mayors of Thames, Mr. W. Bongard, was presented with a gold chain of office on Saturday night before a big assembly. Mr. T. W. Rhodes, M.P., handed the chain to Sir John Luke, M.P., formerly of Wellington, and asked him to invest Mr. Bongard with it. The chain is the gift of nine surviving ex-Mayors of the borough, and the descendants of seven others now dead. It has 16 links, in the form of shields, each inscribed with the name of an ex-Mayor, and a large medallion bearing the badge of the borough and a commemorative inscription on the back. The Minister of Mines prophesied that ttie Mayor of Thames would one day wear not only a gold chain, but robes of ermine. The first Mayor, Mr. William Davies, took office in April, 1874. The pioneers were driven along the famous coast route by the Thames branch of the Auckland Automobile Association on Saturday morning. On Sunday afternoon a combined religious service was held in St. George’s Anglican Church, which was erected in 1872. The Rev. N. Robertshawe (Anglican), the Rev. W. A. Burley (Methodist), and the Rev. W. E. Lambert (Baptist), Pastor H. Langford (Church of Christ), and Ensign Summerfield (Salvation Army), conducted the service, and the Rev. S. J. At.kins (Presbyterian), of Belmont, Auckland, assisted. A large choir drawn from nearly all the Thames churches sang an anthem, the.Te Deum, and the Hallelujah Chorus. To-day there are to be processions and pageants, a luncheon to the pioneers, a sports meeting, and a concert.