1842 discovered copper on Great Barrier island at Miner's Head
PPA
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19915, 7 April 1928, Page 13
EARLY COPPER-MINING.
FINDS ON GULF ISLANDS. Œ - ~ CONTRACT MADE IN 1844. - LANCASHIRE MINER'S VENTURE. The recent Herald article on Captain Ninnis and the unsuccessful attempt to mine copper at Kawau island about the year 1847 has brought to light a record of a still "earlier venture. It is a faded copy of an agreement made on September 7, 1844, between John Aberdein. of Kaw&n, agent for James .Forbes Beattie 4 and John Taylor, of Sydney, and Isaac Merrick, miner, of Auckland, whereby Merrick was to mine copper or♭ at Kawau for shipment in vessels provided by the other parties, his recompense being onethird of the net proceeds of the sale of the ore.
The document is in the possession of Mr. Jacob Merrick, of Ireland Street, Ponsonby, youngest and only survivor of Isaac Merrick's 20 children. He also has a copy of another agreement, executed on April 25, "1844, between his father and William Brown and John Logan Campbell, of Auckland, for the mining of manganese ore on Waiheke Island at 10s a ton.
Apart from i;he two documents, there appears to be no written record of IsaaiC Meirick's early activities, but undoubtedly he was a pioneer of mining in the Auckland district, and more particularly on the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. His son, who is now 76 years of age, says his first undertaking was at Miner's Head, Great Barrier Island, where he found copper ore, but in small masses intermingled with rock. This made it necessary to break and sort- the mixture by hand, an unprofitable method of working. Later he went to Kawau, where he located at least one % q;ood face of ore, but the fate of his contract with the Sydney people is not known. Next he and another man built a small topsail schooner, and used her for an expedition to the Hen and Chickens. On one of the islets they mined 18 tons of copper ore, brought it to Auckland, and shipped it to England. However, they never afterwards heard what tjefel either the vessel or the ore.
Isaac Merrick, it seems, wa3 a Lancashire coalmher. He emigrated, to Sydney in the "thirties, possibly earlier, All that his son knows of his experiences there is that fee was employed as foreman of a gang of convicts, who were quarrying building-stone * for a private employer, to whom they had been farmed out. He found the men were living on a starvation diet, alnd bo could not do anything like a fair day's work. He approached the employer, and, by offer--ing to pay the cost of a proper ration, if the work did not improve after it was given, he secured more food for them. Apparently h 8 arrived in the Waitemata before Auckland was properly established, for, according to family tradition., he made a home for himself at North Shore before there was a single house on the southern side of the harbour.
In after years he farmed some land near Shoal Bay, growing wheat and grinding it in a hand-mill. There was only onʾ baker in the whole region, and clients had to give their orders several days in advance. He acquired some land at Waiheke from tho natives when the island was still well timbered, and exported much kauri to Sydney direct. His last years were spent in Auckland, where he died some 40 years ago. The fragmentary information about him that, his'descendants have preserved prompts a wish that more could ba known of the lives oi such New Zealand pioneers.
DEATHS.
New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6257, 6 December 1881, Page 4. Isaac Merrick immigrated to from Australia to Waiheke Island, Auckland, in 1839.
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