MOUNT MORGAN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 225, 10 November 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

MOUNT MORGAN.

ONCE A HILL OF GOLD NOW A MOUNTAIN OF COPPER. "It is not true that Donald Gordon sold his interest in the Mount Morga i for a bottle of whisky,"' emphatieal'y asserted Mr. Fred Morgan, 'n reply to a statement made, soon after the floating of the company, that this was the prieo paid for the freeho'd of the property. In the recent announcement of. the death of Mr. Morgan, it was stated ho was "the discoverer" of the Mount Morgan mine—one of the venders if the world of gold production. How tar he is entitled to dicoverser's honours has not been determined. The Morgans found the actual gold values in the Mount, but it was known long before they appeared in the announcements of the finding o£ rich gold in the Ironstone Hill, that there was something besides road metal in it. The story of the find has been puilished over Fred Morgan's signature. As one of the romances of Australian mining the finding of gold in Mount Morgan must be given first place. The freehold of the property was owned by Donald Gordon, who took the land up, for grazing purposes, in 1861. He tried to work it to profit as a pastoral holding, but after 12 years of hard labour and large losses decided it was not good enough. He left tho land, and went north, prospecting. He knew the values in the Mount, but thought they were in silver, and he was not a silver man. It is a fact that when the Morgans found the gold in tho stone they were not sure it was gold they had struck.' The metal was different from any of it which they had liar died, and it was not till the assay returns show?d values up,to 37000z of gold to the ton of stone, that they knew .what the? had a rived at. And they had fluked it. LOOKING I'UR SILVER. In 1882 a brother of Donald Gordon. Sandy, was working for the Morgans at Mount Wheeler and .he told Ne.i Morgan that ho believed there was silver in the Dee River country —where there is good copper now. As there was nothing better in sight at the time, Ned Morgan went out with Sandv Gordon and Fred Morgan. It had been promised by Sandy, who appears to have been an irresponsible, thai there would be signs of silver within miles of the Mount. The search was wtihout result as far as silver was concerned. But at the junction of the Dairy Creek and the Dee, Fred Morgan found some biack stone, which was weighty enough to suggest its further - examination. He crushed some of the pieces, and found traces of gold. It j was intended to send Sandy Gordon back to town next morning with a parcel of the stone for testing by l-m* I Morgan, but there was a variation of I the programme. The prospectors I stayed there and put down ■, few potholes, and found gold all up and down the gully. Having convinced themselves that there was some gold there, they sent Sandy into Mount "Wheeler with the black stone which they had broken the previous night. He did not get through. On the my he pulled up at the shanty at Mount Wyatt, and stayed there. While waiting for tho report from Fred—which never arrived, owing to Gordon having lost the samples—tho brothers crushed a quantity of stone ' and found it heavih cliarged with gold. As Sandy did not show up. they decided to go into Rod;, hampton and exhibited some of the stone there. The first men to see >t after the prospectors, were T. S. Hal!, then manager of the Nation 1! Bank ot Oueensland at The Rocks, and W. K. Darcy. They at once went out to the scene' of the find, and saw enough to satisfy them that one of the big things in gold was there. When the assayer's figures showed a return of 37000z to the ton, they wanted no better. It is not stated that Donald Gordon was closely posted as to what had beei found on the Ironstone Mountain. He was out at Normanton when the big discovery was made. But there is no truth in" the story that Sandy Gordon sold his interest in the Mount for a bottle of whisky. He had no interest in the holding. Within a year ot th* opening of the mine he had a steadv job as horse-holder at the half-wav house on the road to the mine and made small profits attending to the animals which were used by visitors. Donald Gordon's interest in the propertythe freehold of the richest gold mine ever opened in Australia, mas bought by the Morgans and others tor £1 per acre The holding was of 640 acres, and, with two leases of 42 acres each, and 40 acres held under miners rights, constitutes the mining property of to-dav. ORIGINAL SHAREHOLDERS. The original shareholders in the mine were the Morgans, Fred, Ned, and Tom —who with a nephew whom they too';: in, owned half of it. The other hail was held by T. S. Hall, Walter Hall, \\ K Darcy, and W. Pattison. Later L S Hall secured half the Morgans' family share. Then Ned Morgan sold to his brother Fred his interest for £IO,OOO. Fred then owned threetenths of the whole mine.; this lie soli to the original shareholders, outsi lo the Morgans, for 1:62,000, and they sold a one-tenth interest to Mr. Job'* Ferguson, M.L.A. for the district, foi £26,000. Ferguson split his holding up and allowed some of his constituents to stand in the good thing with him. Eventually the original outside shareholders bought. F. Morgan's iemaining interest for £31,000, and formed the concern into a limited liability company, with a capital of a million, in £l*shares, paid up to, 7s 6d£370 000. In the first five years the output 0 gold, from stone literally quarried out hke road metal, wis nearly 1,000,000 ounces, and the return to the shareholders was over £3.000..000 in dividends. , . For years the Mount Morgan hel.'i pride of place among the gold mines of the world. It was one 0 the biggest thiny; on earth- of its kind. Then it changed its character, and from .a splendid gold mine Ixwamo a great copper miiio. Now the gold contents i;l tho ore nay for all the cost of working the copper", and the copper values me, in the main, profit for the owners.