Edwin Henry Hardy: a Waiorongomai Mine Owner
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EDWIN HENRY HARDY: A WAIORONGOMAI MINE OWNER Philip Hart Te Aroha Mining District Working Papers No. 97 2016 Historical Research Unit Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences The University of Waikato Private Bag 3105 Hamilton, New Zealand ISSN: 2463-6266 © 2016 Philip Hart Contact: [email protected] 1 EDWIN HENRY HARDY: A WAIORONGOMAI MINE OWNER Abstract: Edwin Henry Hardy worked as a surveyor before going to England to study mining. Upon his return in 1896 he was a representative in Hauraki of English mining companies and supervised several Coromandel mines in addition to acquiring mines in several districts for overseas interests. In late 1898 he purchased the former Aroha Gold Mines’ property at Waiorongomai, which he developed using his own financial resources but probably backed by his wider family. Using his surveying skills, he traced a reef missed by previous owners, and commenced to develop the mines systematically. He also spent several years improving the battery, experimenting with new treatment processes and seeking a patent for a gold saving method. Like all mine owners, Hardy tried to work his property as cheaply as possible, resulting in conflicts with the Thames High School and the county council as he tried to reduce costs. He proved to be very determined in his rows with those he considered his enemies. In addition to developing the Premier mine, profitably, he tested other ground, notable the Big Blow. He supervised both battery and mines, but as he did not have a mine manager’s certificate had to employ a series of managers for the latter. After obtaining a good return for several years, in 1904 he formed Hardy’s Mines Ltd, retaining a financial interest and for a time supervising its work before becoming involved with other mines and clashing with the company he had formed. Hardy also held interests in mining companies in other districts. After leaving Waiorongomai, he settled in Te Kuiti and worked as a surveyor, a purchaser of Maori land, and a farmer. As at Coromandel and Waiorongomai, he was prominent in the local community, notably as a member of the borough council and Te Kuiti’s second mayor. Over time, his financial state deteriorated, partly through being involved with some very dubious businessmen and their schemes. In 1931 he returned to Waiorongomai to show his son Malcolm where he knew of some good ore, but died in dramatic circumstances before he could show him the location. For some time Hardy profited from mining, partly because he took over existing workings and partly because he was able to find ore that others had missed, but as with all mining, profits faded and he had to find other ways 2 to earn a living. But compared with other mine owners at Waiorongomai, he was, for a time, very successful. FAMILY BACKGROUND AND EARLY YEARS Edwin Henry Hardy1 was born in Dunedin in 1859, the second son of Henry Frederick Hardy, an architect, and Isabella, daughter of David Calder.2 Isabella was his father’s first wife, and there were three other sons and a daughter from this marriage. One year after her death, Henry married Catherine McCallum, and would have another son and daughter.3 All these children were alive at the time of Henry’s death in 1904; his eldest son was an accountant at Dunedin, Edwin Henry was a mine owner at Waiorongomai, the third son was an ironmonger in Melbourne, the fourth was a doctor in Edinburgh, where he had been trained (he would later practice in Parkstone, Dorset), and the fifth was deputy harbourmaster at Port Chalmers. The elder daughter was married to the manager of the Bank of New Zealand at Thames, whilst the younger, being unmarried, was living at home.4 Arriving in Dunedin from England in 1853, aged 22, Henry Frederick Hardy became a master builder and architect. He was secretary and architect to the Provincial Education Committee, designing many schools in addition to churches, factories, houses and shops.5 Appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1882,6 for many years he was a member of the Dunedin City Council, and unsuccessfully stood for mayor in 1897. He was also a long- serving member of both the Charitable Aid and Hospital Board and the Benevolent Institution Trustees Board. His sole attempt to be elected to parliament failed by five votes. ‘An ardent churchman’, he held many more 1 For a photograph of him in his last years, see Auckland Star, 27 April 1931, p. 8. 2 Birth Certificate of Edwin Henry Hardy, 1 June 1859, 1859/9291, BDM; Otago Daily Times, 15 February 1904, p. 5. 3 Death Certificate of Henry Frederick Hardy, 14 February 1904, 1904/2539, BDM. 4 Otago Daily Times, 15 February 1904, p. 5; additional information on the fourth son provided by David Calder Hardy, 6 June 2007. 5 Otago Daily Times, 15 February 1904, p. 5; Hardwicke Knight and Niel Wales, Buildings of Dunedin: An illustrated architectural guide to New Zealand’s Victorian city (Dunedin, 1988), pp. 112-118; the index has more references to buildings he designed, photographs of some being included. 6 New Zealand Gazette, 6 April 1882, p. 553. 3 positions in the Anglican Church, including as the first lay canon of St Paul’s Cathedral.7 His property in Dunedin and Otago was valued in 1882 at £16,538, and, with Dr Thomas Morland Hocken owned other property valued at £7,405; he had built Hocken’s house, and from the mid-1860s they had a ‘long enduring business association’.8 As well as being the architect and builder of the Mosgiel Woollen Company’s mill, he was one of its directors.9 His sole mining directorate was with the Shotover Terrace Company, in 1873.10 Upon his death in 1904, the value of his estate was £16,936 14s 8d.11 Edwin Henry Hardy’s schooling consisted of five years at South Dunedin District School, three and a half years at Dunedin High School, and one and a half years at Christ’s College in Christchurch.12 He studied mathematics at Otago University, but did not take out a degree;13 he did obtain a first class result for French in 1876, and play for the university cricket club.14 According to his entry in the Cyclopedia of New Zealand, he ‘entered the Government Survey Department in 1876, passing the Junior Civil Service examination in May, 1877, and afterwards serving a survey cadetship in the Central Otago Goldfields District’.15 Appointed a cadet in the Otago District of the Surveyor-General’s Department on 1 August 1877,16 in December 1879 he was ranked fourteenth out of the 23 candidates who sat the senior examination for the civil service, winning the third class of merit in English, the second class in arithmetic, geography, and French, and the first class in trigonometry and algebra. Being then a 7 Otago Daily Times, 15 February 1904, p. 5. 8 A Return of the Freeholders of New Zealand … (Wellington, 1884), p. H 18; A.J. Hocken, Dr T.M. Hocken: A gentleman of his time (Dunedin, 1989), p. 22. 9 Auckland Weekly News, 26 November 1903, p. 36; additional information provided by David Calder Hardy, 6 June 2007. 10 New Zealand Gazette, 1 May 1873, p. 265, 3 July 1873, p. 408. 11 Testamentary Register, Wellington, folio 91, no. 68, AAEC 638/156, ANZ-W. 12 New Zealand Gazette, 12 February 1880, p. 156. 13 Statement by E.H. Hardy, document A, October 1924, Bankruptcy Files, BBAE 21460, 185/g, ANZ-A; Cyclopedia of New Zealand, vol. 7 (Christchurch, 1898), p. 25. 14 Otago Daily Times, 4 November 1876, p. 2, 15 November 1876, p. 3, 2 December 1876, p. 2, 9 December 1876, p. 2, 26 February 1877, p. 3. 15 Cyclopedia of New Zealand, vol. 7, p. 25; see also C.A. Lawn, The Pioneer Land Surveyors of New Zealand (Auckland, 1979), p. 113. 16 New Zealand Gazette, 13 September 1877, p. 933. 4 cadet in the Engineer’s Branch of the Public Works Department, he was able to substitute plane trigonometry for Latin as his compulsory subject.17 In April 1880 he passed the Government Survey examination,18 and on 10 March the following year was appointed an assistant surveyor in the Survey Department.19 A grandson, David Calder Hardy, described his grandfather as a man who, ‘if he did something, he did it very thoroughly’.20 He ‘liked to keep up with modern techniques’,21 and was ‘a clever man, academically [a] very clever man’.22 His skills included photography23 and technical drawing, ‘at which he was very very good at. He was quite an artist, and, all in all, had a tremendous range of capability’.24 Although he did some sketches, he mainly confined his artistry to architectural drawing. He also had mechanical inventiveness, being able to visualize ways to improve machinery.25 ‘Mathematically’, according to his son Jason, he ‘could add up three columns with ease. He could add up columns just like that, you know, several columns at a time and put down the answer’. He was also recalled as being a perfectionist,26 illustrated by winning a prize for handwriting: he ‘topped everything he tried’.27 PERSONAL LIFE 17 New Zealand Gazette, 12 February 1880, p. 156. 18 Cyclopedia of New Zealand, vol. 7, p. 25. 19 New Zealand Gazette, 28 April 1881, p. 261. 20 Interview with David Calder Hardy, Auckland, 19 April 1986, p. 9 of transcript. 21 David Calder Hardy, marginal note dated 6 November 1986 on p.