A Golden Quarry.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5023, 17 February 1885, Page 2

A Golden Quarry.

Under the above heading, a special oor* • respondent of ah Australian journal sap* plies (ho following interesting incidents in connection with the now famous Mount Morgan mine, near Rockhampton, Queens* land :— . .

"Twenty*'one years ago, a young Scotchman, bearing the name of Donald Gordon, took up for squatting purposes an area of land about 25 miles south*west of tfockhamptou. He had at one time about 200Q head of cattle on the run, and fora while all went prosperously. VAt that time the Dee, which flowed/ through his ' estate, was a broad, deep stream, thickly margined with foliage, and its banks covered with . luxuriant grasses. The gullies and well grassed stretches of plain laud that opened out among the dull sage* hued hills were the feediug places of the cattle, for the hills were rough and stony, with only thick ferns and tufts of ooarte grass between the rock and rubble.. As ~ time went on the Legislature of the colony passed a Land Bill, and men began to select on the runs, and Gordon, who had a partner with him in his undertaking, had, in order to Bare his properly, to take up a couple of selections of land each of 640 > acres. One of these included the south-, eastern portion of a hill more rough and rocky than its fellows*. Among the grass trees and the stunted twisted gums, were scattered big boulders, of dar£, metalliclooking rock, stained by weather, and crusted with patches of green and brown- , tinted moss, This was 14 years ago. Year after year passed away, and Donald Gordon found that with each Christmas he grew a poorer,min. Droughts came, and his cattle died. The partnership was no happy one, and things went ill with them. JBut the hills were coon to echo to another sound than the crack of the stockman's whip and the lowing of the cattle. One day there was heard the sharp clinkl olink! of the miner's pick. They were in search of copper. Day after day they passed the boulders of stone upon the mountain, and perhaps rested upon them, without a thought that they might contain gold. Donald Gordon caught the mining fever," and set out to find a copper' mine. He paid a geologist—a man of the schools and a professor of wit—to Ti'sit the dis* triot. The professor was- rery learned, full of sounding' phrases, desribiog the commonest objects by most lengthj and technical terms. But the professor did not find any copper mine. Then the *ise man was about to pack up bis luggage— and depart by the coach; when Donald bethought him of the mountain, for the idea had passed through his mind that perhaps there might be something after all. He took the professor to the mountain, and he pointed out to him the black rocks and the professor said something in Latin which sounded like a curse, and declared it • a mountain of ironstone.'

"Several years bad, pasted; Donald Gordon's hopes and spirit had been broken, and he was. at work for his daily bread at the Galaway mine, Mount Wheeler. The cattle were orer the hills and far away. One day he offered to show the owners of the mine the mountain of ironstone. They got there and the next scene surprises Donald in the-act of receiving that £1 an acre for his section —£640 in all. The persons to whom the mountain was pointed out were the brothers Morgan, who having made the purchase, formed ajcopartnership consisting of the following:—* Frederick Morgan his two brothers—>F, G. Morgan, and T. S. Morgan—and one of the brother's sons, they possessing one half of the mine,and Messrs T. S. Hall.W. Hall (Sydney), W. K. D'Arcj, and W. Pattison possessing the remaining half. The Morgans subsequently subdivided their half into five shares, and Mr T, S. Hall became possessor of one-fifth of their half. Mr Edward Morgan sold nil share to his brother, Frederick Morgan, for the sum tof £10,000. Thus, Mr Fred. Morgan possessed 3-10ths of the whole mine. This interest be eventually sold to the original shareholders of the aecond half for the sum of £62,000. On the same day as the sale, the purchasers sold l-10th interest in the mine for £26,000 to Mr John Ferguson, the senior ML A. for the district, and he has since split up a .portion of that interest—one half I am informed'—among a number of Bockhamptou people who have invested various sums from £500 to £1000 and upward. Finally, the original shareholders of the second half brought out Thomas Morgan's one-tenth for £31,000. It is about two years since the Morgans purchased the land, and the claim had, when I visited it, been worked about 11 months. In addition to the freehold, the shareholders have ah adjoining leasehol 1 of 47 acres, and further in addition, 30 men's ground. " Returning from the mountain, I stopped at a wayside inn, where a tall, weather-beaten grizzled looking man took my horse to a well to drink. This was the original holder of the freehold, who parted with it to the Morgans. He said he had always believed the mountain to be of ironstone, and never knew or the fortune that was io long within his grasp. In olden days he used to sell the pnmice stone-looking quartz in Boekhampton to clean the hearths and door,steps of the houses."