The claim formerly owned by a party of Salvationists is about the first I believe to be operated upon. The ground is about 60ft deep, showing gold more or less from near the surface to the reef. As a sluicing country this is simply magnificent, there being no stones but what the water can move and carry away. The waterrace, owned by the prospectors, is a valuable property. So far these men have expended their whole earnings here, and more, in the employment of labour at goldfields rates. Speaking in a pecuniary sense they have been a power in the place, and have evinced an amount of energy and perseverance hitherto unprecedented it the way of speculative enterprise in the district. They have now lying at the base of the eastern face some 1200 or 1400ft of 9-inch iron piping, including the receiving pipes of larger calibre. During the past few weeks they have been employed reducing and sloping the hummocks and grades of the pack track for the easier carriage of heavy material. An empty dray has been taken up the eastern slopes the past two seasons with some little difficulty by the Fox Brothers but the carting tip of the pipes and timber is an arduous undertaking requiring no little skill, patience, and energy. One of our old goldfields' pioneers, Mr Henry Maidman, a man whose energy and determination no obstacles can thwart, has undertaken the job, and I can pay him no higher compliment than to say that, however difficult the task may be, he will carry it through. -Otago Witness, 14/10/1887.
Things to be Avoided. — Several persons in the Wanaka have lately received tickets for sale in an art union to be held in Dublin in aid of a fund to erect a fever wing to the Mater Misericordiae Hospital. The tickets present a splendid array of prizes — rather too splendid to escape arousing suspicion. The address, also, is peculiar — Ottago, Mew Zealand, Australia. The farmers hold aloof from such affairs, as they remember that Mr Henry Maidman, of Mount Barker, won a steam launch in a similar art union held at New Plymouth, and that he can get neither steam launch nor satisfactory reply to inquiries thereanent. I believe that the Rev. Father Cassidy, who got up the art union, is an amateur engineer, who superintended the construction of the steam launch, and left for New South Wales prior to the drawing, building another one there. The minor prizes were duly delivered, one of the printers in the Tablet office drawing and receiving a watch. A firm of Sydney consultationists are also industriously sending round ciroulars, but it is to be hoped that these will fall upon barren ground. The people have had plenty of warning that these are not genuine, notwithstanding that clients are advised to register their letters. -Otago Witness, 28/8/1890.
Mr Henry Maidman -Otago Witness, 20/8/1913.
Mr Richard Norman writes: "I notice with regret the death at his farm at Mount Barker, Wanaka, of Mr Henry Maidman. A native of Camberwell, London, he went to sea very young, and served as a sailor on vessels trading with the Levant. He travelled over mid-Canterbury before 1858, and about the end of 1863 reached Wanaka. He procured a team of bullocks and took wool to Oamaru, returning with stores. In November, 1864, he married Miss Fanny Maria Cole, the ceremony taking place at Albert Town before the registrar, the late Mr Henry Korman, and being the first wedding in the district. A year or two later Mr Maidman opened a store and hotel at Luggate. He eventually sold out and lived at his farm, Mount Barker. His wife predeceased him by some two years. He leaves a number of grand-nephews and nieces. Mr Maidman was a great reader, had a wonderfully retentive memory, and had a very large fund of general information." -Otago Witness, 30/12/1919.
Wanaka Cemetery.
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