Place:Thames, Waikato, New Zealand

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Thames is a town at the southwestern end of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand's North Island. It is located on the Firth of Thames close to the mouth of the Waihou River. The town is the seat of the Thames-Coromandel District Council.

The Māori name for Thames is Hotereni. The Māori iwi are Ngāti Maru, who are descendants of Marutuahu's son Te Ngako. Ngāti Maru is part of the Ngati Marutuahu confederation of tribes or better known as Hauraki Iwi.

The town was initially built during a gold rush, the first major discovery of gold was made on August 10, 1867 by William Hunt, in the Kuranui Stream at the north end of Thames. The subsequent mine produced more than 102,353oz bullion and was known as the Shotover. The era from 1868 to 1871 were the bonanza years for the town with gold production topping one million pounds sterling at its peak. Official figures for production of the Thames Mines recorded a yield of 2,327,619oz bullion with the value at $845 million. The three richest fields were the Manukau / Golden Crown / Caledonian mines but many others yielded near equivalent amounts. Towards the end of the 19th century Thames was the largest centre of population in New Zealand with 18,000 inhabitants and well over 100 hotels and three theatres in 1868. For a while it was thought it would replace Auckland as the major town in the area. A former local institution of learning was the Thames School of Mines. Thames also benefited from a period of extensive Kauri logging in the surrounding ranges around the same time.

Many people migrated to Thames at its peak, and it was soon the second-largest city in New Zealand (the largest being Dunedin then Auckland). However, as the gold began to diminish, so did the number of inhabitants, and although Thames never shrank, it has never grown much either. It is still the biggest town on the Coromandel. The population in the 2006 census was 6,756, an increase of 51 since 2001. Many residents work in tourism and locally owned businesses servicing the local farming community.

source: Family History Library Catalog

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