Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 9, May 1968
It has been suggested that we must be coming to the end of our Ohinemuri Chronicle, but this is by no means so. There are still many places, people and events waiting only for the recording by "someone who knows", generally someone other than the Editor - whose job it is to use facts as they come to hand. That they do come, and sometimes from unexpected sources, is a matter for congratulation: e.g., Mr. Caudell Clark's excellent article. Next year we propose to republish the "Contents Pages" from the first 10 Journals so that members may realise the variety of topics covered. At no distant date important data should be summarised and arranged in chronological order to complete a comprehensive picture. A Book must of necessity be concise but our Journals afford a field for recording interesting details with some bearing on main events.
Always we are grateful to contributors of both Articles and illustrations but would like to acknowledge source material which is invaluable. In this category we include old Newspapers, Diaries, Books and Pictures. Some of the earliest donors of Weekly News Pictures were Mrs. Carter and Messrs Harry Armour, Norman Morton and Bert Middlebrook. We are also glad to have the following :-
(a) Pictures from a 1900 copy Weekly News and some from the 1898 Exhibition Number featuring "Our Mining Industry", with 100 photographs of Mining Officials. (Mrs. Lawrence, Whakatane).
(b) A Copy of Waitekauri's Newspaper - "The Golden Age" 14 - 4 - 1897 (Mr Kent, Auckland).
(c) Copy of "Hauraki Tribune" 16-6-89 – Paeroa's 1st N.P. (Mrs. J. Silcock, Paeroa)
(d) Karangahake's "Goldfield's Advocate" 1909 (Miss I. Greening, Karangahake).
(e) The Auckland Province Volume of "Cyclopedia of New Zealand" (Miss L. Thorp, Paeroa). This is a huge tome published in 1902 after much research. Its preface states, — "The intention is that each volume shall describe and illustrate notable places and scenes, contain biographies and portraits of people in practically all sections of society and deal representatively with industries and callings".
It is not really a Directory so there are certain omissions but it is a most valuable reference book and deals fairly exhaustively with this area which at that time was on the threshold of great development.
Some time ago the Moore family gave us an original water-colour of "old" Paeroa, painted in 1897 by C. Aubrey, a strolling artist; two more of his paintings — "Karangahake" and Komata Battery" were recently sent to the Arts Centre and Museum by Mrs. Cook (nee Taylor) who attended the Karangahake School. We here express our gratitude to all who help us in this way and must specially mention Mr. George Chappell of Waihi from whose 60 year old glass negatives Messrs Alan Beck and Phil Jones have made wonderful enlargements. These have provoked great praise and will continue to hold interest in the years to come.