Friday 14th November 2008

A Golden Past
Thames and Coromandel, further north on the Coromandel Peninsula, were both gold mining towns in the latter half of the C19th. We had planned to go to the Gold Mine Experience, at the northern edge of Thames, but unfortunately it was closed for maintenance, although I heard later that it would be open at the weekend. Too late really, as it would be quite a trek back over the winding coastal roads.


Dave cycled round the area but I took the opportunity to visit the Thames School of Mines, where I joined a guided tour of the old school and saw the museum with all its mineralogical exhibits. The curator was a brilliant communicator who knew all about the history of the mines as his father and grandfather had both been miners and he had long been associated with the museum.
The school opened in 1886 and addressed problems such as the low recovery rate of gold from the ore. Fees were paid up front and if the student was indisciplined and thrown out, the fees would not have been returned.


The Thames Historical Museum, which we visited later, contained an interesting poster directed towards “Epicene Women", who were canvassing for the vote in New Zealand - it advised them to go home and take up their proper duties of looking after their homes, their children and in particular their husbands, for which Nature had designed them. Interestingly, NZ was the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote in Parliamentary elections in 1893.
Jean