Figure 50: Crown purchases in the Ohinemuri and Owharoa blocks

the Waitekauri Company. Their mine was left to tributers (miners working for a share of the gold produced) in 1880 but revived in 1894 by London investors who formed the Waitekauri Goldmining Company. The richest deposits were discovered in 1892 high up in the valley and were worked by the Golden Cross mine, which became the biggest producer in the area. The second biggest was the Jubilee mine. The upper Waitekauri was intensively explored in the 1880s and a new mine opened in 1891 after the Empire vein system was located.

The Waitekauri battery and township was situated about half way up the valley in the Ohinemuri 1 subdivision, on land that was awarded to the Crown in July 1882. The upper- middle part of the Waitekauri Valley lies in Ohinemuri 20A. Ohinemuri 20A1 was partitioned out in 1884 and awarded to Rihitoto Mataia solely.¹³⁴ It contained several water races which fed the Waitekauri battery and part of the Jubilee special mining claim. This

134. Document a10, pt 3, p 117