The whole area became very busy, with mines, batteries, roads, tracks (many now overgrown), and tramways and water races. One could move readily from Owharoa to Waihi, Waitekauri, Maratoto, Komata, and over into the Wharekiraupunga. In July, 1895, with the big mining investment boom of 1895-7, Kersey Cooper was off to England to get mining company investment. "The well known Wharekiraupunga, formerly known as the Brothers, is amongst the mines which Mr. Cooper takes Home." There were even mines taken up in the rough country between Wharekiraupunga and Waihi - or at least claims. Many claims taken up during the investment boom did not end up as mines.

By April, 1897, the Royal Standard at Wharekiraupunga employed 197 men, and by June 2 still had 160 when it had put off 40.

On April 5, 1898, the Royal Standard at Wharekiraupunga, which had been employing 80 men, shut down most works. Komata was prospering.

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Not only was there connection between the sea and the Wharekeraupunga, the sea outlet being just south of Whangamata, but also in the late 1890s in connection with the big expenditure on mining installations they made a light railway along the valley to the sea. Shall enclose a tracing.

Most who went to the Wharekeraupunga area in the 1890s did so by sea. There was no track in from the south. There was a rough track over from Waitekauri, and another track went over the range by "The Wires'' and down the Wentworth Valley and then up to the Royal Standard on the Wharekirauponga.

There was very little actual mining done at the Royal Standard. Mostly it was a case of living in huts on what was essentially a big construction site, with putting up buildings and plant and the light railway. The peak seems to have seen around 240 working in the forests, sawmilling, and on construction. The conditions for married couples with young families were somewhat better than for say single men in accommodation houses with barrack conditions and cookhouse. The couples had individual huts, somewhat smoky and primitive, but warm with the abundant firewood around. Rather hot in summer. Another estimate is 300/500.

Wharekirauponga was a recent variation by people who thought they knew better than the earlier Europeans, like making Tamehana into Tamihana, the i with an ee pronunciation as in "missionary" Maori, which from the 1820s replaced the earlier debara pronunciation, with Ds and Bs and Ss. The settlers who came later were inclined to make their own spellings to suit their own pronunciations, like Matatoke, now Matatoki. The settlers did not understand i saying ee, except in words like machine.

It was possible in the latter part of the 1890s to go by rail to Paeroa, and then by road to Waitekauri, and then by the track through dense forest and ridges to the Royal Standard, but by ship from Auckland to a landing south of Whangamata would be more usual. Work was going on vigorously as late as March 18, 1898, with "the tramway is almost finished and the foundations for the battery will be started at once," and carpenters as well as bushmen etc. busy. On April 4, however, the news was that all works on battery, water race, tramways and so on had been suspended to concentrate on the mine. However, the tramway had been completed down to the river landing at the limit of navigation, and then 25 men discharged, leaving 60. But by May 2 the mine too had been closed, "throwing a large number of men out of employment." The mining episode was brief, and little actual underground work done. At that very time, at the beginning of May, 1898, "the Komata township itself is progressing, new buildings being in course of erection…. public hall (already, with "several good restaurants" etc.) By May 23, 1898, there were only a couple of men on the ground, with a reputed 500 18 months before.

On October 51, 1898, it was reported that in a maintenance case at Thames, a woman described how her husband had been a cook at Wharekeraupunga, but was now out of work and drinking. Her charges could not bring back activity and good jobs to Wharekeraupunga, for about a year to a year and a half a hive of activity, with at least £25,000 spent on impressive works with nothing to profit.

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Extracts from: Mary and Francis Murray and Annie, by Mrs Elsie Graydon, 1987

In the investment boom of 1895-7 Kersey Cooper went to England to raise mining company investment. On his list was Wharekirauponga formerly known as the Brothers. There were many claims taken up in the rough country between Waihi and Wharekirauponga but few ended up as mines.

The Royal Standard was in full swing employing 197 men by April 17th 1897 to put up a big plant and a tramway 8 miles long to the head of the tidal Otahu River near Whangamata.

We slept on the floor (earth covered with bracken), had toast for breakfast and were on our way. Climbing up the spur and we found the end of the tramway above the battery site. Good weather and level going, and fortunately no heavy slashing - only light fern.

It had been a man-handled one. What a tough old prospector he must have been. We follow the tramline and soon on our right is the adit or entrance to the old mine. Inside was stacked a large quantity of broken ore from the reef inside. It was stacked like the old time roadmen used to stack their road metal - long neat heaps. No doubt it was meant to be trucked down to the Battery first mentioned.

Lou and I did a bit of wandering around outside while my father took 'samples' from various heaps and from the main reef. These he assayed a week or so later and were of reasonable value, but a Company was never formed - possibly another result of the approach of World War II which deleted much mining of man-power. Now across the stream fairly close to this tunnel and just a few feet above water level an attempt was made in those early days to drive in and sink a shaft on the reef. I believe there is a waterfall in this stream close by though I did not see myself. This is possibly where the main reef crosses as it must be a harder rock formation.

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Papers and Reports Relating to Minerals and Mining, 1897

Wharekiraupunga District.

A large amount of prospecting has been done in the Royal Standard Mine. The reefs are being opened up and a tramway made to a point on a creek where machinery can be landed. A large battery of forty stamps is to be erected near the mine, and, as there is ample water-power adjacent, this company will be in a position to treat quartz of low grade. The mill is to be fitted with all the latest appliances in gold-saving. Mr. J. G. Ralph, the manager, gives the following account of the mine and works :—

The low-level tunnel has been driven a total distance of 151 ft;, at right angles to the general course of the various lodes traversing the property. This is sufficiently large to admit of a horse-tram line being laid. The country-rock is a very hard, splintery, close-grained andesite. The Royal Standard main lode will be intersected at this level, at a total distance of 640ft., giving 380ft. of backs, and affording crushing material for years to come before sinking is resorted to. The Le Messurier level is being driven along the foot-wall side of the Le Messurier reef. Bore-holes are drilled at equal distances along the lode, and the borings assayed, which proves the quartz to be highly payable. A cross-cut is to be commenced at a point 200ft. from the mouth, and driven through the reef, where a junction of two other smaller reefs with the Le Messurier is expected to be met with. In the Le Messurier cross-cut the total distance driven is 62 ft.; another 220 ft. of driving will intersect the Royal Standard main lode on the south side of the creek. The lode on the spur through which the cross-cut is penetrating is a splendid body of stone. Sulphides of silver, associated with extremely finely divided particles of gold, are freely seen in the large pieces of ore strewn about the surface of this spur. From here we expect a long run on highly payable ore. The Junction cross-cut will intersect the main lode on the northern slope of creek in 30 ft. of driving, and will pass through a further distance of about 60ft. to reach the western branch of the lode, from which good dish prospects are obtainable on the surface. The want of storage-room for the quartz, broken out necessitates the stoppage of development works on the various reefs until the tram-line is connected with the quartz hoppers. The total distance driven in the intermediate level is 95ft. The rock here being near the surface is an oxidized andesite (propylite), through which progress is more speedy. The main lode will be intersected here at a point some 800ft. north of the Junction cross-cut. A shoot for the conveyance of the quartz to the tram-line will shortly be in course of construction. The bulk of the crushing-ore will be obtained from the Le Messurier, Junction, and intermediate levels for a considerable time to come.

The tram-line for the transit of quartz to battery is being constructed from the low-level tunnel to the kiln-site, a distance of 20 chains. From the entrance to the Junction cross-cut a bridge is to be constructed across the main creek, at the south end of which a large storage-hopper is in course of erection. The tram-line from this hopper will be cut around the precipitous rock to the mouth of the Le Messurier level. The tram from the Le Messurier to a point opposite the low-level tunnel is being made, and when a quartz hopper is erected a stretch of tram-line from this to the low level will complete the tramway formation. Great difficulties have to be contended with during the formation work, very precipitous rocks, the crust of which is extremely hard, towering up perfectly straight for 200ft.

The water-race formation, when completed, will have a total length of 40 chains, giving 197 ft of fall. The excavation for battery is being carried on with expedition. A firm class of sandstone is met with for the foundations of stamps. The site will shortly be in readiness for the cyanide plant. Bricks for the assaying-furnaces can be made close to the battery-site. The greater portion of timber for the battery, water-race, hoppers, &c., is ready at the different pits, and a tram-line is being laid down in readiness for conveyance of timber to the battery-site.

Mr. Charles Judd, of Thames, is the contractor for the manufacture and supply of a forty-head dry-crushing stamper-mill and a cyanide plant of the latest type, the whole plant to be erected without delay. The natural position of the mill-site enables the quartz, when once dumped into the kilns, to pass by gravitation through the whole mill without handling. The main-line formation of the railway from battery to landing is complete a distance of 4 miles 52 chains. This work is at a standstill until the arrival of the rails from England.

The company is experiencing great difficulties in conveying supplies to its property. The Ohinemuri County Council appear to take no interest whatever in opening up this district. The Royal Standard Company have for some considerable time employed upwards of two hundred men, which surely entitles them to something in the matter of roads.

Prospecting works have also been carried on in the Atlas and La Mascotte, where several gold-bearing reefs have been discovered. Work was also carried on in the Devon, Gold Stream, Royal Shield, Tavistock, Prince of Wales, Fiery Gross, Sceptic, Day Spring, and Waitekauri-Tavistock Reefs Junction.

Wharekiraupunga.

Royal Standard Mine.—This company has done a large amount of work during the year. tramway has been laid from the landing in the river to the mine, a distance of about four miles and a half, and only requires some ballast in places to complete this great work. An excavation has been made for the battery about three-quarters of a mile from the mine. The construction of water-race is in a forward state, and the manager's house, offices, store-house, &c., are all built suitable for a large company's business, and Mr. Pascoe, the manager sent from England, considers there is nothing in the mine to warrant the outlay, and in consequence has recommended the directors to stop all works until the matter is fully considered. It is said £23,000 have been spent on various works connected with the mine.

Wharekiraupunga.

A little prospecting has been carried on in this locality, but no important discoveries have yet been reported.

Royal Standard.—There has been very little work done in this mine for some time past; it is under protection pending the owner (Captain Hodge) raising sufficient capital in England to enable him to more systematically develop the mine, which he is sanguine will yet prove to be a valuable property.

Gold – Mines Of The Hauraki District, New Zealand. By F. Downey, 1935

TE WHARIKIRAUPONGA

Browsing through an old newspaper, which I wish I had seen earlier, I came upon some items about Whariki. Had I been more interested when young I might have asked some of the elderly men who used to come down to our place from Whariki and they could perhaps have told me something of the history of the place. We went there from Waiharakiekie and I could have looked at it with different eyes had I perhaps known more about its past. I thought that it must have yielded heavily to have warranted the expense of forming that long tramline through the bush from The Landing at Parakiwai.

All I saw when I visited it was a small rugged pocket amongst broken hills and dominated by "The Pinnacle". It was strewn with relics of earlier days in the shape of rusted, broken machinery, pipes that led into further hills, rail lines and trucks, one old house, fruit trees and all sorts of odds and ends. I couldn't find any signs of the places where men whom we had known had lived and had their gardens. I couldn't even find the place where Alex Melville used to grow those extra sweet-scented violets that he used to bring down to us — three huge bunches — one for Mother and one each for Viv and me. He must have had a large patch of them.

It was a very pathetic sight and saturated with the past. I could imagine the ghosts of those who had worked there years before but I had no idea that there were so many of them. Even now I find it hard to believe that hundreds of men lived there seventy years ago. It must have been a close-packed settlement. I didn't know that it was a place that once had had a dream which, like so many human dreams never came to fruition. I don't know even now if there were any women or little children there to wander about the places where I once wandered and it is now too late to find out. Not that it would avail me anything to know — only in my thoughts and imagination.

When we first went to Rama to live a few men were still working the Great Northern Goldmining Company's Glamorgan. I remember Alex Melville and Harry Widdison ex Waihi; Phil Dancer, C. dark, Tom Gill, Bob Hutchinson in 1916; and in 1920 Jacob Toby and Tommy Poata; in 1921 were Bob Paepker (also spelled without the 'r'), Bob McEwan, Jack Moran, Phil Dancer, Archie Laycock, Ben McCallum, (————) Lambert, (————) Griffiths, Tom Poata and Nixon Smith (also known as Korehika or "The Kanaka").

In that year Mr McCombie came out to Whariki. I remember that it was a wet day and I thought how funny he looked as he came riding in to our place, holding a big umbrella over himself. It was the only time I saw anyone using an umbrella while riding a horse. As a result of an investigation Paepke engaged more men to work the mine, his step-son, Harry Dwyer being one of them.

According to the way the men talked when they came to our place they were very hopeful of the prospects and used to bring rich samples in to show us. Father packed out a lot of stone to be assayed.

I see a diary entry 25th January, 1921 : "Packed three horse-loads of mullock from Whariki". This was taken to Waihi the next day. Nothing, however, came of it. Perhaps, due to lack of finance, the men drifted away, but I don't know when the mine was actually abandoned. It seemed that they were only dabbling at it in the end. The men would be away for days and then come back. (Whariki was still working in 1922).

Down the years Whariki was a lure to many prospectors. Some of them made our place their headquarters. Jim Anderson, Waihi, prospected there in 1914 and brought good samples out. C. V. Roberts and a friend used to stay with us while they prospected, not only Whariki, but also other prospects further up the coast at Ohui on J. McGregor's property. The Phoenix and Maori Dream. Jack Andrade, who had left the district years earlier, came from Auckland in 1926 and took over the mine. He bought a lot of stuff that had been left there when the last to work the mine had gone away. He came a number of times and stayed with us on his way to and from Auckland but eventually he gave up and sold the stuff to Father. A lot of old iron stuff at Whiritoa came from Whariki. It was left at Whiritoa when the place was sold in 1967.

After George and I took over the property at Waiharakiekie, we often used to walk to Whariki over the hill track and up the valley to gather fruit before our own trees matured. There were many fruit trees, largely apples which could have been self-sown seedlings, but most of them were excellent eating apples. Sometimes we would ride, but it was rough going for horses.

The first time I went to Whariki was one evening shortly after we went to the Rama when Father was expected home from Whariki and hadn't arrived. Mother was alarmed and fearing that he had met with an accident, sent me off to Whariki. I went round the tramline way and it was dark when I arrived. The men said that he had been there but had gone home, apparently over the hill. Alex Melville insisted on coming back over the hill track with me and walked in front with his bottle lantern. He refused to take a turn on the horse. By the time we completed the journey, Father was home.

The next time was when I accompanied Son when he was delivering meat to the camp. The third time was when Paepkers put on a birthday party for Bobby at Waitekauri. Bub and I left Whiritoa on the evening of the previous day, stayed the night at our home in Waihi and went on to Waitekauri the next day. We danced that evening in the Waitekauri Hall, stayed at Paepker's that night and the next day, escorted by Bobby, rode over the old track from Waitekauri into Whariki. It was mostly through bush and very wet and slushy underfoot, and was the worst bush track on which I have ever ridden — especially the downhill portion. The horses' feet would start a slide that would continue for yards before they could get a footing and steady up — indeed, I think we slid most of the way down the hill and it amazed me that the horses didn't get their feet straddling the boles of the trees on the track.

However, we eventually arrived at Whariki, found some stale bread in the house, went round the hens' nests and gathered up eggs and then boiled up and enjoyed a meal of bread, boiled eggs and tea. Paepkers occupied the house at the time, but they were more often at their place at Waitekauri. The house had earlier been a store and Post Office run by H. H. Adams and the old Post Office Box attached to the front of the store was still there. It was a large house and had possibly been a boarding house as well.

After a break and a look around, we continued our journey to Whangamata, attended a dance there that evening and the following day returned home to Whiritoa, having done the round trip.

The old house at Whariki must have had good timber in it because later Norman Palmer pulled it down, sent it down the river to Parakiwai where the timber was taken out of the river and carted up the Wentworth Valley to make a home for N. Palmer. This house was later brought down and re-erected at Waiharakiekie as a residence for the farm manager for the Lands and Survey. It is now occupied by M. Sherwin — 1968).

The Whariki tramline ended at the landing at Parakiwai and this is where I could well end this part of my story. But first a word picture of Whariki when George, Ross and I used to go there. This is an essay Ross wrote for his school lessons :

THE OLD MILL

"The Old Mill stands by the river. It is many years now since it has been used. Sometimes someone comes along the old bush track that was once a tramline. The tram-rails have long since been taken away and the walkers stumble over the rotting sleepers. Presently they come to the mill. The neglected, rusty workings greet their sight. On the roof a sheet of iron flaps dismally in the wind, like some ill-omened bird of prey. In a corner a rat scuttles out of sight over some tools. I wonder where the man who used them is ? Around the comer stands the old broken forge. Old bellows lay nearby on the ground. What mighty work have they done ? The people tread carefully over the floor, fearing that the rotten boards would give way under them.

"Everything was forsaken for ever. One wall had fallen in. All was desolate. A solitary piece of belting was fast rotting. The mill would never work again. All the boilers were rusted and cracked. Nobody wanted the lengths of piping. Someone touched an old saw and it crumbled away in dust. Inside what was left of the old mill was a big box of bolts and nuts, a heap of tools, part of an old saw, a few rusty buckets and a broken axle. Laying around outside were heaps of rusting iron, some roofing iron together with several old boiler plates and an old wheel. Presently they came to an old pipe leading away up the hill. Further down was another old shed. Down they went to the creek again and found another large wheel. 'Plenty of wheels', said one. 'Yes', replied another. Then they noticed a large pulley in the scrub. They walked across the old shaky bridge and went home."

In his essay Ross says the tramrails were taken away. Actually, they were lifted and piled in several heaps along the line. The expense of lifting these was money wasted because they were just left to decay and were for the most part just heaps of rust when we saw them. Years later a man from Waihi Beach collected the best of them and built a stock yard. They soon disintegrated, however, possibly the salt air completed the erosive process. When we were there we saw the big air compressor which was still complete.

But what of the newspaper cuttings I mentioned earlier ? Here they are :

1896, May : "The Auckland Prospecting Association has been granted the Sceptre, a special claim of 100 acres in the heart of the gold-bearing district of Wharikiraupunga . . . According to Mr J. G. Ralph it is one of the best properties in the whole of Ohinemuri."

1898 : Residence sites granted to F. W. Martin and T. P. Glynn, Te Whariki. Application for Special Claims by Edward Glenlivet Elliott, Accountant, Auckland, for Te Whariki previously known as Royal Standard Extended Special Claim, now surrendered, 100 acres. Capital, £10,000. Work to be sinking and driving. Term 21 years.

Application by John Martyn Hame, Mining Agent, Auckland, for land previously known as The Sceptre Special Claim, now being surrendered. Claim to have the same name.

May 28th, 1898 : Under the heading of "The Slump at Te Whariki", the "Waihi Miner" refers to the well-known Royal Standard Venture — "Twelve months ago this promised to be one of the finest in the Hauraki Goldfields and which gave employment to 300 men including contractors. The reason for this absolute cessation of operations is pretty clear. The money subscribed, amounting to over £250,000 for developing the mine, has been expended, but, curiously enough, not in development, but in the erection and construction of buildings and tramlines and in preparing for a 100-head stamper mill. This modus operand! has a startling effect on the casual visitor who viewed the big works going on all round him, with wonder and admiration and not till he left the scene of operations that it might have occurred to him that he had seen or learned nothing of any bona fide mining going on ... This mine, in our opinion, has not had fair play and some day we hope to have the pleasure of chronicling a different story ..."

"The downfall of Te Whariki, after a brief period of prosperity has, we regret to say, taken place. About 18 months ago nearly 500 men were employed in and around this district, including bushmen, carpenters, labourers, miners, and, last but not least, mining experts. The mining expert is now more extinct than the moa as not even his skeleton is left".

Waitekauri Jotting: The closing down of the Royal Standard seems to have put the extinguisher upon Te Whariki which is now practically abandoned to the rats and the morepork. Dan Alien has transplanted his billiard saloon and table to Auckland, and other signs of civilisation have been carried out of the deserted village".

A final clipping: "It is reported here that another fire has taken place at Wharekiraupunga, resulting in the complete destruction of Wood's Store and Post Office".

The last words have not been said. We are left with the impression that the gold is there. With modern methods, easier access, increasing value of minerals — who knows ?

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