Celebrating Waiuta's Silver Jubilee: A Photographic Record by Joseph Divis

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 48, 1 January 2016, Page 69

Celebrating Waiuta's Silver Jubilee: A Photographic Record by Joseph Divis

SIMON NATHAN

Most gold-mining settlements in New Zealand lasted only a few years before the gold ran out and the miners drifted away. One of the exceptions was the isolated town of Waiuta, near Reefton, on the West Coast of the South Island, which celebrated its 25th (silver) jubilee in 1931. It was an important milestone for the population of about 500, indicating that the town had a future as well as a past. Waiuta was a company town built around the Blackwater mine, one of New Zealand's deepest mines, which worked a rich and persistent gold reef. Virtually every household had at least one person employed by the mining company. Although New Zealand was in the middle of a long depression in 1931, there was full employment at Waiuta. The company cut wages by 10% in 1930, but Waiuta remained more prosperous than most other country towns.

Joseph Divis was a working miner at Waiuta but made some extra money as a freelance photographer, regularly supplying photographs to the Auckland Weekly News. Most of his photograph collection was recently acquired by the Alexander Turnbull Library, including a delightful set of images of the jubilee celebrations. They not only provide a record of the event, they also illustrate the way anniversaries were celebrated by local communities around New Zealand in the first half of the 20th century. There was a parade through the town, a sports meeting, an evening concert, a dinner for pioneers and old-timers, and a special event - the Queen Carnival.

Postscript Sadly, Waiuta did not survive to celebrate its golden jubilee. The Blackwater mine continued to produce gold through the 1930 s and World War Two, although the workings were getting deeper, and profits were decreasing. After a major collapse in a ventilation shaft in 1951, a decision was made to close the mine. No other work was available in the town, so within a few weeks most of the residents had left.

There was a nationwide shortage of building material at the time, so many of Waiuta's houses were dismantled or moved. By the end of 1951, it was a ghost town. The surrounding area is now public conservation land, managed as an important historic site by the Department of Conservation. This paper covers only one aspect of mining-town life photographed by Joseph Divis. A larger selection of his photographs is given in Through the Eyes of a Miner: The Photography of Joseph Divis by Simon Nathan. The first edition (2010) is out of print, but an expanded second edition will be published in late 2016.