The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
Hamiltons
Hamiltons is eighty-six miles north-west from Dunedin, via Waipiata —a railway station on the Otago Central line—from which a mail and passenger conveyance runs. In the early days Hamiltons was the centre of a great “rush,” when many thousands of miners were on the field. Gold sluicing is still carried on with some success, but the country is now chiefly devoted to sheep-farming. Hamiltons has a post and telephone office, a school, and a “Union” church, which is used by the various denominations. Several years ago ten or twelve complete moa skeletons were found in the district.