Chook's Tracks
Named after the Maori Stream.
Lying south east of the Jubilee Hill within the valley of the Mangakara Stream. It was held by Young N.Z., Welcome and Welcome Extended.
These claims were all taken over by Young N.Z. Co. around 1889.
The Welcome Claim produced 1,090 tons quartz, crushed for 1,523 ounces bullion, worth £3,200.
Welcome Extended crushed 65 tons for 156 ounces bullion, worth £390.
Young N.Z. during the same years had an output of 292 tons for 312 ounces bullion, worth £880.
Youngs gave the area a good try in 1894 but without much luck.
In 1905, the ground was taken up on behalf of a Waihi Syndicate run by J.M. Haslett and a lot more work was done mainly on the No.4 level where a shaft was sunk to sixty five feet before they were beaten by water inflows.
A nine stamp battery was erected with Government assistance. Results weren't satisfactory and the mine closed down until 1908. It opened and closed again in 1914.
Reopened in 1925 as the Maoriland Ltd, they gave it another trial but went into liquidation in 1929 and the ground lay idle at least through until 1935.
Exclusive of the output previously mentioned from earlier claims, total output from the Maoriland area was set down as 6,114 tons crushed for 5,396 ounces bullion, valued at £13,450.
I believe that parts of this mine were worked during the 1939 – 45 war and possibly to 1947, a period when the Government was chasing gold.
Some of the machinery from this nine stamp battery is at the Tauranga Museum, taken there in the early nineteen seventies [and since then erected at entrance to Thames - E].
This was a very difficult area to mine as it consisted of a large slump area in the range which caused the reefs to be broken and scattered over a wide area.
Definition of a Mine – A hole in the ground surrounded by thieves.