Pukewa Waihi will appeal not only to students of social history and long-time residents of Waihi, but also to anyone interested in gold mining, and especially to those whose families have been touched, however fleetingly, by that fickle dame - the Martha Mine.

A social history of a New Zealand mining town covering the 19th and 20th centuries, Don Lockwood has drawn on the impeccable resources of the Waihi Art Centre and Museum. "This book is a natural companion to JB McAra's Gold Mining at Waihi," was Waihi Borough's last mayor Owen Morgan's comment when shown an advance copy of the book. "What McAra is to early mining technology, this book is to Waihi's social history."

An opulent resource which will be invaluable to many, it is full of voices from the past, some until now forgotten, some but dimly remembered. This gem-filled book gives the reader a rich insight on what life was like in Waihi's earlier years. A rich and varied collection of accounts of aspects of life in Waihi gives insight in how people then perceived not only themselves but also their society.

The gathering of such a wide selection of social historical data into a single body must be applauded, and was the brainchild of Jim Say, a long-time Waihi resident, who commissioned the book. For Don Lockwood it was a labour of love, almost three years in the making.

right:The cover of Pukewa Waihi features a photograph of a group of miners at change of shift at No. 2 Shaft.

Waihi is a small town lying at the foot of the Coromandel Peninsula, 150km south-east of Auckland. It attracted gold prospectors in the late 1860s, was first mentioned in geological reports in 1870 and the Waihi Plains Goldfield was formally opened in 1875. Pukewa, the Maori name for the hill with its glistening outcrop of quartz at Waihi, was to become the richest hard-rock gold and silver mine in NZ. It was first mined successfully as the Martha Mine by an English company, Waihi Gold Mining Co, which used mainly underground mining methods. It was the town's principal employer for more than 50 years, closing in 1952 when profits dwindled.
In the late 1970s, as the price of gold soared, the tunnel-riddled hill was re-evaluated by prospecting companies and eventually the mine was resurrected in 1987 using opencast methods, and is still operating in 2003. Historical accounts from mining prospectors and early Waihi leading lights such as Les Morgan, the Haszard Family, Fred Carbutt and WT Hammond sit cheek by jowl in the book with lists of Waihi's voluntary fire service' Fire Chiefs and firemen and extracts from the Waihi Gold Mining Company's wage book.

Painstaking research records the names of many of the people in the old photos and this is a credit to the editor.

A time line with a brief comment in the first chapter gives the reader an idea of Waihi's history and whets the appetite to go looking for more detail in the body of the book. Much material is transcribed from original documents and, where known, attributed to the original author. Some newspaper reports are quoted and in some instances the newspaper reports are published in original form, taken directly from the museum's Wallnutt clipping file. This includes an account of the 1923 Waikino School shooting.


right: Waihi Telegraph
Wednesday January 6 1909.
'A sensational discovery was made in Waihi yesterday afternoon by the police, when they found a whisky still, and all the apparatus for making whisky installed on private premises in the east end of the town.'
The spirit of the times, perhaps?


The chapter on the controversial issue of the 1912 miners' strike uses material from CG Sleeman's 1958 history thesis held at Auckland University, to shed new light on this aspect of Waihi history.Specific items covered include the liquor licencing prohibition from 1909 to1935; the 1918 influenza epidemic; the construction and opening of the Paeroa-Waihi rail link; inquests into deaths caused by mining accidents; the defunct Waihi Gas Works and accounts of various fires in both Waihi and nearby Waikino.

left: The book includes information up to the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Grand Junction No. 3 Shaft sees the light of day for the first time in nearly 100 years.

While Pukewa Waihi does not claim to be a complete and comprehensive social history of Waihi, Don Lockwood has drawn together many threads and woven them into a rich and varied tapestry, which ends at the beginning of the 21st century.

Ollie Richardson.B.A., Dip Jnl.

above: Electronics was a mainstay of the Waihi economy for several decades, with over 500 staff employed at the industry peak in 1964.

Foreword to Pukewa Waihi by Basil J Morrison, Mayor, Hauraki District Council

Compiling and presenting a historical record requires those involved to possess many important atributes – dedication, impartiality and the ability to source information being some that come to mind.

Researchers cannot change the course of events nor their outcomes, however they can bring those events to light in a manner which allows the present-day reader to obtain a closer relationship and better understanding of life in times gone by.

Besides the researcher drawing from a pool of unpublished atricles, the publisher has made excellent use of modern technology to collate an interesting display of photographic and schematic records from across the respective span of time.

This publication is an excellent initiative to add to the record of mining-related events centred around Pukewa and will find a commendable place in the rich library of Waihi's life.