New Zealand's Technological Participation in the International Goldfields: The Example of the Stamper Battery.

Abstract

New Zealand's gold rushes of the early 1860s followed similar rushes in California and Australia, and mining technology was imported from those fields from the outset. Over the subsequent decades international mining technology was developed and improved. The question that this article asks is: how did New Zealand fit into the international hard-rock goldfields? Was it merely a follower of overseas technology, or did it participate more actively in the development of mining technology? Based on an extensive archaeological survey of surviving machinery, this article argues for a model of technological participation, which acknowledges that New Zealand was a small player, but that New Zealanders participated with agency in the mining industry, rather than simply being actors using imported machinery and technology.