MOUNTAIN OF TIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 299, 18 December 1935, Page 6

MOUNTAIN OF TIN.

AVhen James Smith, after years of prospecting in the wild mountain country of Tasmania, finally stumbled on a likely-looking hill one morning in December, 1871, he realised that he had struck a find. Mount Bischoff, as it was named, proved to be a mountain of tin, and tin was worth about £200 a ton. He at once took up tNvo 80-acre blocks, and subsequent examination showing that the tin was there in great quantity, he floated the Mount Bischoff Tin Mining Company, with a modest capital of £30,000. His hopes were fully realised. Within 30 years Mount Bischoff produced tin to the value of six millions sterling, and paid dividends to the fortunate shareholders of £2.500,000. It became the richest tin mine in the world, and the tin output of Tasmania exceeded that, of all other minerals put together. The people of Tasmania were grateful to the persevering man who had discovered this wealth after many years of prospecting. They presented him with an address and a purse, and subsequently Parliament voted him an annuity of £200, a recognition which fell far short of the wealth' and prosperity which, by his own unaided efforts, he had brought to his native State. Smith died lull of honours in 1897.