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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 15, Issue 3 (June 1, 1940)

Romance of Coromandel

page 62

Romance of Coromandel

Storied Coromandel! The Maruiwi peopled it subsequent to the coming of Kupe, round about 950 A.D. A proportion of “Toi's myriads” of the 1150 A.D. migration, poured in, conquered, and in the course of 400 years, lost it to the Tainui tribes, from among whom the Ngati Tamatera, and their related tribe, Ngati-Paoa, gradually emerged as the dominant people of the Coromandel Peninsula, and the Hauraki Gulf.

In 1769, Captain Cook noted the mighty forests of the high mountain ranges; so did the early day commanders of warships and keen-eyed traders, to whom “the grand spreading tops of the kauri, surmounting every other tree, and proclaiming itself king of the forest” meant kauri spars, for which they could get £200 apiece in London. In 1820, H.M.S. Coromandel, calling in for a load of spars, gave its name to the beautiful, land-locked circular harbour, on the shores of which nestled a native village.

Lying across the harbour exactly opposite the existing wharf, is a long, narrow island with lovely little sheltered bays, shelly white, and pohutukawa-fringed. Its name is Whanganui, though formerly it was Waiou. About 1835, a trading-station was established here by an American trader, William Webster, who was to cause almost a century of litigation between the United States and British governments. Webster worked up a considerable trade with the Maoris of the mainland in spars; pigs; and maize, which they grew in the valley occupied by the rambling township of to-day. A big genial man, Webster was yet a forceful character, who came to wield much power over the natives, though this was partly because of his well-stocked store, which he would make “tapu” to the tribe of any native who offended him. Such warm blankets, gay prints, and other articles of adornment; such sharp-edged tomahawks and adzes, and much-to-be-desired guns; such wonderful pipes of clay and cherrywood, and even more wonderful tobacco, had not hitherto come within their ken. The Maoris, therefore, walked warily where Webster was concerned, and bartered away their lands to the shrewd Yankee.

Webster, or “Waipeha,” as the Maoris named him had taken a chief's daughter to wife, native fashion. The Maoris called him “King of Waiou,” and here he reigned for several years till departing trade and rumours of Californian gold lured him across the sea. Had he but known, golden opportunity lay at his very front door, for just beside the mainland wharf are the deserted battery, fern-grown prospect tunnels, and mullock dumps of the once famous Hauraki gold-mine which drew thousands of miners to Coromandel, and proved to be a remarkable fortune-bringer.

It was in 1841 that Webster first put forward a claim for 500,000 acres of land, which included practically the whole coastline from Hauraki to Whangarei. This, he said, he purchased from the native owners between 1836 and 1839. Various commissions assigned him 42,000 acres of the land, although it does not appear that he actually got possession of it.

In 1845 Webster left New Zealand, but it was 1858 before he turned up in the United States to present his New Zealand land claim to the Washington government. The claims came before the Senate and were the subject of correspondencé over some years. In 1873, Webster went to London and put his claim before the Secretary of State for the Colonies, but nothing came of it. In 1876, 1880, and 1884 the claim came up again,
Coromandel's most modern building—The Rest Room.

Coromandel's most modern building—The Rest Room.

and in 1890, and 1893, it was the subject of diplomatic demands by the United States upon Great Britain.

Webster died at Baltimore, in 1897, and left his entire estate to his widow, Augusta J. Webster (his Maori wife he abandoned). The widow immediately prosecuted the claim with vigour, and a claim for Arbitration was made by the United States to Great Britain and included in the Schedule for Claims for 1910. The late Sir Robert Stout made an exhaustive report on the subject, and the case was set down for hearing in 1914, but was postponed because of the war. It was eventually heard at Washington, in December, 1925, when arbitrators were appointed by both governments. The claim was finally rejected, and so after 85 years the case was settled against Webster's heirs.

The first part of this story was told to me in Coromandel by Mr. P. Beveridge, retired manager of the Bank of New Zealand, who is a mine of such stories, all of which he verifies. The latter part of the story was taken from government files which are very vague as to Webster's doings in New Zealand. An American journalist writing for details of Webster's life remarks that nothing is forthcoming in America, but that Webster is quoted as saying that he knew well the East Indies, China, New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and New Zealand where he owned a lot of the country. He also claimed to know Queen Pomare well, and to speak her language. A colourful character was Webster!

He comes into another story. In 1840, Sir John Logan Campbell, Auckland's first merchant and well-known philanthropist, landed at Waiou from Sydney. Then a former ship's surgeon looking for adventure, he stayed on as Webster's paying-guest, and was often page 63 carried over to the mainland at low tide on the back of a Maori wahine to witness the timber operations in the bush. Webster introduced him to his first trading venture by finding him an island to buy in the gulf. Here he and his companion, a former law student, set up a pig farm, for pork was then a staple article of commerce. The right to his island was never afterwards questioned by the Maoris, although it came within an ace of being claimed by the government upon the surveying of the site of Auckland.

The year, 1883, saw Church of England missionaries settled at Mana, near Coromandel, and in 1850 the Rev. T. S. Grace, crossing from Auckland, noted in his diary: “The bays here are very beautiful. The village of Coromandel is well situated and the surrounding land is suitable for cultivation. Here there is a large new chapel.” Of the chapel no trace remains, nor has the oldest inhabitant any recollection of it. Coromandel has seen another Anglican church come and go, for two years ago a gale of wind damaged the existing church so much that it had to be pulled down. A few grass-grown graves in a field above the entrance street mark its former site.

From 1840, bushmen arrived in earnest, and a sawmill town came into being. The kauri industry reached tremendous proportions. The ranges being steep, and streams numerous, use was made of driving-dams. The trees were felled, cut into suitable lengths by a cross-cut saw, and the lops shot down to creek water. Here they would lie until a “fresh” drove them down to the creek mouth, or harbour, where the “boom” was waiting. The boom was formed of a circle of logs chained together, often enclosing acres of water. The logs entered the boom, were fastened together, and towed to their destination. If the felled trees were far from deep water, a skidded road was formed of greased logs. This made a rough sort of wooden tramway onto which the logs were jacked. Sometimes bullock-teams, making their own track through the undergrowth, hauled out the logs.

In Coromandel many tales are told of the bush gangs who would toil for a year, to have a fat cheque and a week's “spree” at Christmas, after which, the cheque “blown,” they would go back to the bush. They lived on pork and potatoes for three meals a day, and thrived on it, for Coromandel is full of lone-lived, “hard-case” old bushmen, who delight to tell a tall story without even a twinkle.

There is still activity in the bush. We were interested in the growing pile of logs deposited by lorry at the tidal creek near our hotel. Arthur Hamilton, in charge of a cutting and log-hauling outfit on the Tokotea Range, said that the logs were from a patch of big timber left over from early days. Inaccessible then, the timber was now workable by “modern methods.” He invited us to see for ourselves. Next morning saw us on top of the range, where we had an unforgettable panoramic view of the township, beyond which stretched the smiling blue waters of the island-studded Hauraki Gulf on one side; and on the other, an equally unforgettable view of the road winding and twisting far below to lovely hill-encircled Kennedy Bay.

Here we waited till the lorry came out with its first log of the day. The road into the bush was on the east of the range just below the summit, and had been formed by Mr. Hamilton with his “bulldozer.” It was just of sufficient width for the lorry, and not always that, for we were pointed out the spot where it went over after dusk—a kauri log being the only casualty. Arriving at two huts, perched above road level, we were given a cup of tea before going on a few yards to the slipway. By invitation of Mr. Hamilton we took turns at riding on the bulldozer as it ploughed down the mountain side, and tore a trail through the forest to a felled log. Nikau palms, fern trees, and young saplings were bowled down like ninepins; broken logs, stumps, and other obstacles hurled themselves aside at the monster's coming. “Modern methods” would destroy the chances of any fugitive in a forest to-day.

The log, always felled some time before, was attached to the tractor by
A view of Coromandel Harbour showing the wharf.

A view of Coromandel Harbour showing the wharf.

adjustable cable, and hauled with ease up the mountain to the slipway, manoeuvred into position, ring-barked, measured, and branded. It was then ready to be jacked on to the lorry, and so to the tidal creek to await a scow from Auckland. Already after four months’ cutting, 200 heavy rimu logs had been dispatched.

Fir logs lying beside the wharf were part of a contract taken up by two expert Maori bushmen from Hokianga, and being light would be floated across the harbour.

Knowing that an army of kauri gumdiggers had once invaded Coromandel, I asked if the Hamilton enterprise ever found any gum.

“Plenty of it,” I was told, “but after digging it up, the bulldozer hurls it to the side of the track with other spoil, and so it usually gets buried again.”

Every Coromandel home has its collection of unusual gum specimens, but I was always advised to keep my admiration for “Mrs. Johnson's gum,” said to be unique and the result of 50 years’ collecting. Unfortunately something always turned up to prevent me from going along, as I was invited to do.

As official records have it. “The first authentic discovery of gold in New Zealand was made in Coromandel, in 1852. In October of that year, before the Provincial Councils had taken over, a body of representative Aucklanders offered a reward of £500 to the man who should first discover a valuable gold-field in the northern district of New Zealand. Within a week this was claimed by Charles Ring, officially page break stated to be “a prospector recently arrived from the Californian diggings,” who stated that he had found gold in the Kapanga Creek at Coromandel.

According to the story told me by a prominent resident of Coromandel, who knew Ring well, “Charlie Ring, and his brother, Fred, had a sawmill in the bush, to which the logs came down from Kapanga Creek, known locally as Driving Creek. One day while down at the creek, Charlie picked up a piece of rock showing colours of gold. His Californian experience led him to think it would assay well, so in his spare time he did a bit of prospecting. He got hold of some quartz nuggets, and washed a quantity of fine gold from the creek.”

Commissioners were sent to report on the proposed field, and discovered that the reef was on Maori ground, and that the natives, though friendly, were strongly against any more miners prospecting over their lands till some agreement had been reached. The commissioners, too, seemed to think it doubtful that the goldfield was extensive enough to pay for working, and so Charles Ring was never paid the promised reward. However, the government eventually made an agreement to pay the native owners £2 for each square mile of territory prospected; £1/10/- if the miners’ licenses issued exceeded 500; £2 if the licenses issued exceeded 1,000. Meanwhile, about 3,000 diggers flocked to discover that the getting of the gold meant hard work. The general opinion was that the field was poor, and it was abandoned within six months. Yet the Kapanga mine was to prove its worth.

After the gold discoveries of Otago, interest in Coromandel was revived. The Kapanga mine, worked at great profit, was the first to attract English capital to New Zealand. More than once the run of gold was lost to be re-discovered—a feature of all Coromandel mines where the gold occurred in shoots and patches of almost phenomenal richness. The broken volcanic formation of the country was responsible.

In 1870, gold was discovered on the Tokotea, and for a number of years this mine yielded good dividends. A very beautiful formation of quartz crystals was found in the Tokotea reef—we picked up some good specimens which now glitter in our rockery. An old miner told us that he had often seen gold in quantity trapped between the crystals—but that was once. The Union beach mine gave good returns, as did the well-named Success Claim. It was, however, left for the famous Hauraki mine to create the boom of 1895, when a miner named Legge, working on tribute with his mates, took out some thousands of ounces of gold in a few weeks. To the field flocked 7,000 miners, and overnight Coromandel became a city.

The golden period is gone, but even to-day individual prospectors and miners have luck. On our recent stay mild excitement was caused by Herbie Anderson and his mate taking £300 worth of gold in three weeks from their claim near Castle Rock. Everyone in Coromandel will tell you there's as good gold in the hills as was ever taken out, and that the surface only has been tapped. Not enough development work was done at the time the mines were in full swing, but “modern methods,” and capital, would produce another bonanza.

In 1887 a School of Mines was established in Coromandel, and flourished for forty years. The course of instruction was comprehensive, and students from this school occupy prominent and responsible positions overseas. Sir Colin Fraser, Australia's leading engineer, was the son of a Coromandel sawmill proprietor. Before going to London to specialise further, he did much valuable work for the New Zealand Government, and afterwards Australia was quick to recognise his worth.

The Coromandel of to-day has other industries. Sheepfarming and dairying are now the real backbone of its existence. Coromandel granite, worked at the Moehau quarries on the Cape Colville road, is becoming well-known as a building stone. Off the wharf lies the oyster-boat, for oysters are everywhere about the peninsula. A mussel-dredger is also at work, and canning mussels is a Coromandel winter industry. The output is about 2,500 cases, and the whole of it goes to the Mann settlements of the north.

Coromandel is in no sense a tourist town, but in that lies its charm. Something of the old-time glamour persists. Perhaps this is because of its long isolation, for it is literally on the road to nowhere. At one time its communication with the outside world was entirely by sea; even to-day its cargo is sea-borne. Though Thames is only 35 miles away by road that road was, until lately, merely the old coaching road, and one that presented a problem to the motorist. It is still a road to travel with caution, but this is compensated for by the beauty of the rock-girt, pohutukawa-fringed coastline. To give a tropical twist to the scenery there are the acres of curiously distorted mangrove trees of its mud-flats, and the giant aloes that grow about lovely Te Kurneu Bay.

Coromandel abounds in good stories, and in friendly folk who have never learned to be “stand-offish” with strangers.

One could fill a book about the place, and about its past, and the half would never be told. We're all “characters” here, you know. “I can't make out why the newspapers have let us alone for so long,” declared a leading citizen. And he meant it!