A MOUNTAIN OF GOLD.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5882, 7 October 1885, Page 4

A MOUNTAIN OF GOLD.

The history of -the 'discovery and fl'upcea]

sive transfers of_tho famous Mount Morgan mine in Queenslands, and the sudden changes of fortune involved, roadi like a romance. The land wns first taken up for squatting purposes by a young Scotchman named Donald Gordon. His enterprise was 'unfortunate, and he lost everything. Ho took a scientjfio professor to the hill, where there wore boulders of stone, which heothdught contained cop{ perj but -the prof cbbot : said .it wag" "a indnntain of* ironstone," 1 and valueless. Some years afterwards, wo are told ia a nnrrntivo compiled .- at.' Rookhatnpton by "W. G. (V that « Donald Gordon's' hopes and Bpirits. had^b.eenibroken, und htj was at work :-f or his '"daily ' bread at the Galawa mine, > Mount Wheeler. The 1 cattle wero over the hills and far away! One day he ofEeredHb show the owners of the mine the mountain of ironstone. Th[ey| got thore. The noxtiscene that surprises Donald is tbo act of receiving £1 an acre for big selection— £64o in all.' > .: 1. j '• The persons who found this remarks able mountain were the brothers Morgam who, having made the purchase, formoa a co-partnerahip, consisting'.of^e^fpllowt ing:— Frederick^Slorganj his-tWo" bfotlieri — F. G. Morgoa and T. S. Morgan— andj one of the brother^ sons, they possessingone half of the mine, and Messrs.. T. S f Hall, W. Half .(Sydney), >F/ E?^*f roy arid W. Pattison possessing the r'emainin^ half. The Morgans subsequently sub divided their half into five shares', and Mr

T. S. Hall became" possessor of one-fifth or " - their half. Mr. Edward Morgan sold hia 1 share to his brother, Mr. Frederick Morgan] for tho sum of £10,000.' Thus Mr. 1 Frederiok Morgun, witn his own original share, that of his son, and that purchased from his brother Ned, possessed three-j tenths of the whole mine. ' This interest he. eventually BohLto the. Original share-, holders of t lie second; half for the sum of £62,000. One the same day us this sale the purchasers sold, one-tenth, interest jn the mine "for" £26,000," to. "Mr. J,ohn Fer-' guson. the senior fIi.L.A. for the district,' and he has since split up portion of that interest — one - half, 1 am informed — j among a number of Rockampton people,; who have invested various sum, from; £500 to £1000 and" upwards. ]?inally,| tho original shareholders of the second half bought out Thomas Morgan's onetenth for £31,000. It ia about two years since tho Morgans purchased the land, audi tho claim had, when I visited it, been worked about 11 months. Ia addition to' the freehold, the shareholders have , on a"d-| joining leasehold o£ 47 acres, and further in addition, 30 men's ground. For a con- * siderablo time the affairs of tho mine werel kept in great secrecy, and, in order toj avoid suspicion, the gold obtained w.*s' shipped to Brisbane for export, lest bytlie publication of a greatly increased export of gold from Rockhauipton, public curio-j sity would bo aroused, land the 'uaystryi solved. This state of affairs could not, off course, be long maintained ; but still, even to tho-present, tho doings of the couipaay are kept very quiet, and {he actuarresults of the mine are known only to the shareholders. However, Messieurs the Share-j holders are not allbacheiors, and'somehowi or other — who can say- hW'? — sufficient; information has leaked out to convince! people that Monte- Ghristo's cUvc of gold' bids fair to be eelipsd'ia the splendour of 1 its bounty by the Queensland golden; mount." , , _ r . .- ■ J