FADING TOWNS.

Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1211, 28 February 1922, Page 7

FADING TOWNS.

TROUBLES OF WAIHI AND KARANGAHAKE

In somewhat the same manner that the big mining industries in Australia have been laid low, so is Waihi —once one of the greatest gold-producing districts in the world —fading into the merest shadow of its former greatness. Only recently no fewer than 170 hands were paid off from the Martha Mine, because it was not found advantageous! to keep them on. Hitherto the companies, when reducing staffs for one cause or another, have managed to keep on the married men of settled habit with homes in the town, but on this occasion the men paid off from the Martha Mine are said to include a fair proportion of married men, who have worked and had their own homes in the district for years. The reason for the dismissals is said to be the inability of the companies to pay the wages demanded by the men, who are now requiring a sixhour day, and a five-day week. It is believed that another lot of men will be dismissed from the Junction, and other workings this month. Not only is work decreasing at Waihi, but the town is disappearing. Owing to the high cost of building it has been found more economical to buy a cottage in Waihi for removal to another district than to build. Only a few weeks ago a very large wooden hotel building in Waihi was removed in sections and re-erected in Rotorua. TbJs is " Princess' Gate," one of the largest and most up-to-date houses in Rotorua. One agent in Waihi confessed to having sold 33 houses for removal in one month. These are being re-erected in Te Puke, Whakatane, and other towns in the southern Auckland district. If Waihi is in a bad way, Karangahake, nine miles! off, is infinitely worse. Indeed, this once flourishing mining township, where the stampers used to thunder night and day, is dead. There is nothing doing at all there as far as serious mining work i§ concerned, and the atmosphere is that of a deserted village. Karangahake once had a presentable bowling green. To-day there are cattle grazing on the land, and the pavilion has been removed to fulfil a more useful function elsewhere.