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O
nce gold was discovered, and
negotiations completed, the Thames
area’s population exploded. Now the
largest town on the Coromandel, Thames was
once the second largest in NZ, after Dunedin. In
1871, it was larger than Auckland by 4000.
Early colonial settlers included C.M.S.
missionaries, who established their first
mission station inland near Puriri in 1833.
They soon moved their station nearer the Firth
to an area called Parawai in the hills edged
by the Kauaeranga River – not far from the
Kauaeranga Pa and presided over by the savvy
Ngati Maru rangatira Taipari.
This area – Kauaeranga to Maori (later called
Shortland) – had seen some European influence
with traders visiting the area. Maori had planted
orchards and gardens, and traded produce with
settlers in Auckland.
Chief Taipari, born Hauauru, adopted Christianity
and was baptized Te Hotereni. When Taipari
(senior) died in 1880, the son Hauauru Tikapa,
baptized Wirope Hotereni (after Willoughby
Shortland the first Colonial Secretary for New
Zealand) took over his late father’s role in the
tribe’s business affairs.
James Mackay had been commissioned
by Government in 1864 to secure peaceful
relations with the tribes in the area. He was
successful in persuading the local hapu to open
the land up for mining after several visits. We
might infer that the Taiparis, father and son,
were positively disposed to pakeha since they
had both been baptised as christian – hence
the ready friendship with Mackay in the difficult
task of persuading local hapu to open the land
up to mining.
Te Hotereni had arranged for Maori prospectors
to seek gold on his land and actively
encouraged prospecting. With the finding of
gold in the Karaka stream, and after protracted
negotiations, the goldfield was proclaimed
open on 1 August 1867.
THE GOLDFIELD OPENS
BUT NEEDS A TOWN
News of the gold strike quickly reached as far
afield as Australia and England. Thousands
of hopeful miners – one report counts 11,000
miner’s rights issued – swarmed into the tight
little goldfield.
Quickly a settlement of Maori
whare
, rough
wooden shanties and tents sprang up. Miners
and labourers lived rough. Stores were set up
in tents. The Maori’s peach tree orchards were
soon felled for firewood, and the hills behind
the fledgling settlements were also quickly
denuded of vegetation. Hundreds of eager
prospectors pegged out their claims.
Because it was easy to land goods and people
at the shallow mouth of the Te Waiwhakuranga
River, Mackay (aided no doubt by the eager
Taipari, soon to be colloquially known as the
Squire of Thames) set up his Government office
on Grey Street, and laid out the township.
The Shortland Wharf was quickly built. Captain
Butt opened his Shortland Hotel, leading the
way for a spate of shop and house building, all
of which was supervised indefatigable Mackay.
SHORTLAND DEVELOPS
Governor Sir George Ferguson Bowen (visiting
in April 1868, only a few months after being
sworn in) wrote a report to the Colonial Office
in England: “There is one peculiar and very
interesting and suggestive fact connected with
the town of Shortland, viz., that it is arising on
ground belonging to the influential Maori chief
Taipari. He declines to sell his land, preferring,
with a view to its rapid increase in value, to
let it in lots on building leases.... He employs
Europeans to survey and lay out roads and
streets and to construct drains, culverts and the
like.” He estimates Taipari’s income from leases
and rents to be
£
4000 a year.
An upbeat description found in the “Thames
Miners Guide” in 1868 states: “The township
of Shortland is exceedingly well laid out, the
streets are wide and very numerous, the houses
are substantial, and in Pollen Street tolerably
uniform. This is the principal street and it can
boast of containing the Court House, Post
office, a Custom house...four banks, a theatre,
five hotels, five eating houses or restaurants,
SHORTLAND
AND ITS FOUNDERS
BY RU S S E L L S K E E T
News of the goldfields reached England, where an engraving of
Shortland was featured in the
Illustrated London News
, Sept.,1869.
In this 1868 satirical cartoon, James Mackay, the
‘Thames Autocrat,’ addresses concerns of angry
miners. It is assumed that the woman seated right
is his wife, Puahaere, not only a Chieftainess of
Ngati Paoa through her mother, but King Tawhiao’s
daughter as well.
The Making ThameS
C
aptain Cook reconnoitred the inland areas along the Waihou River in
November of 1769, and was impressed with the flat navigable river,
and the expanse of Kaihikatea trees he thought suitable for masts and
spars. He named the estuarine area the Firth of Thames because of its
similarity to the River Thames estuary in his homeland England.
Nearly a century would pass before gold was discovered in this placid
region, a discovery that would change the face of the land forever.
TAIPARI & MACKAY ~ THE MEN BEHIND THE TOWN
(continued next page)
View of Shortland from the Hape Range.
James Mackay’s large home with veranda is above left.
The Kauaeranga River is in front of the row of far trees;
Shortland Wharf, showing three masts, is at its mouth.
Buildings in the wharf area include Stone’s timber mill,
the Court House, Butt’s Hotel and Theatre, and the dense
knot of business premises centred on Pollen Street.
Punch or The Auckland Charivari, 1868
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Photo: American Photographic Co., 1869 1876, Auckland. Te Papa (O.031351)