shareholder in those areas was Te Rihitoto Mataia whose husband, W G Nicholls, was chairman of the Ohinemuri County Council for a period and brother-in-law of Charles Dearie, collector of goldfields revenue in Thames. After Crown purchase, goldfield revenues that had gone to Maori owners would then go to the county council, so Nicholls represented a body that had a vested interest in Crown purchase. Dearie acted on occasions for the mining warden and resident magistrate on land matters, and at times facilitated or executed Crown purchases.¹³³ Such close connections between influential persons were not uncommon in nineteenth-century New Zealand.

Adding further complexity, native agent Wilkinson, the husband of Merea Wikiriwhi who was a co-shareholder with Rihitoto Mataia in Ohinemuri 20a block, was sometimes suspicious that Dearie was seeking to conduct purchase negotiations in such a way as to favour his brother-in-law’s wife (Te Rihitoto Mataia). Wilkinson advised the Native Department not to give much credence to Dearie’s advice in respect of the purchase of her shares.

10.4.3 The Crown purchase of Karangahake

When the Ohinemuri mining block was first opened most interest among miners focussed on the Karangahake Gorge, near the junction of the Waitawheta River and the Ohinemuri River, conveniently only a little above the head of navigation of the Ohinemuri River. On 3 March 1875, about 600 miners assembled to stake out their claims. Few were successful in staking good claims and, although a 20-stamp battery was erected in 1875, the field was said to be practically deserted by April.

More extensive reefs were opened in March 1882. Three companies acquired most of the claims and worked the Crown, Woodstock, and Talisman mines. After the adoption of the cyanide process in 1889, the New Zealand Crown mine became one of the first mines in the world to trial the process commercially. The population of Karangahake reached about 2000 at its peak, and the area was to become the second greatest producer of bullion, after the Waihi mines, in Hauraki.

The principal mines and the township of Karangahake were located in Ohinemuri blocks 10,11, or 17, on land which was awarded to the Crown in 1882 and declared as Crown land in August 1884. In Ohinemuri 11, a 27-acre non-sellers’ portion was purchased in March 1886.

10.4.4 Waitekauri mining and Crown purchases

The Waitekauri Valley runs from the headwaters of the Waitekauri River near Whakamoehau mountain to the north, to its junction with the Ohinemuri River near Waikino to the south. Gold was discovered along the river and on the slopes to the east and west. The Komata

133. Document a10, pt 2, p 167