A rugby club of some renown was established with players drawn from the
ranks of the rugged miners. Of course, any match was accompanied by a fine
dinner at one of the hotels to honour the visiting team. Such affairs offered
entertainment and ‘much speechifying’. Above is team from 1911.
Left: Kauri was not main industry of the area, but mines need timber both
for building and to fire the ore ovens. Here bushmen travel by train to the
work area, some bringing their dogs.
Kuaotunu’s all the go,
Kuaotunu ! Kuaotunu !
We’ll step it out, both heel and toe,
For golden Kuaotunu.
Then come with me and look around,
And view the claims upon the ground,
Where lots of ‘sugar’ may be found
In golden Kuaotunu.
Chorus: Kuaotunu, &c.
Try Fluke is tried, and proved to be
The mine of mines that’s sure to gee,
With Keystone and with Victory,
In golden Kuaotunu.
From Try Fluke, if the day is fine.
We step across and view Carbine
And Mariposa, in the line
Of gold, in Kuaotunu.
And if Red Mercury should rise,
The Great may give us a surprise,
and near it find a Secret prize
In golden Kuaotunu.
We hope to meet a happy fate
In going through the Golden Gate,
And Just in Time, if not too late,
May boom in Kuaotunu.
When homeward bound we meet John Bull,
and Nelson by the hand we pull,
And then with Surplus we are full
Of golden Kuaotunu.
Don Pedro, Patience, Jubilee,
and Bandoleer we next to see,
And they cry out for Victory,
In golden Kuaotunu.
And should we step a little way,
Bonanzas are a card to play,
For ounces four is sure to pay
In golden Kuaotunu.
From Maori Dream to Happy Thought,
The Precious metal’s being sought
and Labour’s battle’s being fought
In golden Kuaotunu.
Three cheers for Kuaotunu field;
May every claim ten ounces yield,
And all the Fates with favour shield
This golden Kuaotunu.
Kuaotunu’s All the Go!
Dance song written in 1890 soon after gold was discovered in Kuaotunu.
Many mine names are woven into the lyrics. Published in
The Observer.
20
COROMANDEL LIFE LATE AUTUMN/WINTER
T
here are many remarkable
historical photos
of the
Coromandel in the late 1800s, most
missing their photo credits. But we
suspect many of the good ones were
taken by geologist Alexander McKay.
Rebecca Simpson told us it was thought
McKay took the photo on page 16 with a new lens he had
shaped from the bottom of a whiskey bottle – another exam-
ple of Kiwi ‘no. 8 wire’ ingenuity. It is believed he also used
some lens elements from opera binoculars and developed a
lens to take microscopic photos of rock slices.
He is credited with designing the telephoto lenses in 1883 or
1884, an invention he never patented.
McKay used his photograph to illustrate his geological
survey reports, specifically about the gold regions, but also
about the fossils and earthquake faults of New Zealand. He
was an avid, almost rabid, geologist, self taught but under
mentorship of more learned geologists. McKay, though, was
a free thinker, and expressed many of his unique theories,
tangling with the well-educated geologisists of his day. Ever
the character, he even answered one debate as poetry.
Learn more from the book titled
The Real McKay
or visit
the Alexander Mckay Geological Museum at the Victoria
University, Kelburn, Wellington. To see a flipthrough book
scan of a pristine-condition geologic report, search for
“Rocks of Cape Colville Peninsula, NZ” by Prof. Sollas, with
notes and photographs by McKay. The report contains high
quality scenic and mine photos of the Coromandel region.
Photographer & Geologist
Alexander McKay
