Talk:Mount Morgan, Queensland

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Mafeking Bell - how true is the story about the schoolchildren and the pennies

I sat down to write about the Mafeking Bell made by the mine, funded by school children donating pennies, a story that proliferates widely on the Internet. The problem I found is that while the bell was made by the mine and was in place at the town hall by Nov 1900 (the relief of Mafeking having occurred in May 1900), there is no mention contemporaneously of any involvement of schoolchildren or of pennies. The first mention of the role of school children I can find is in 1955 where it says "as far as he [the shire clerk] could ascertain, the bell was cast at the Mt Morgan mine ... the cost being subscribed by schoolchildren of Mt Morgan" and I find "as far as he could ascertain" to be a suggestion he is not confident of his information and there is no specific mention of pennies. In 1962 the shire council put up this plaque which mentions the pennies for the first time I can find. If one looks on the internet, the story gets more embellished, the pennies were copper ones to be melted down for the bell, etc. My problem is that we have a "good story" that everyone likes to tell but apparently wasn't worth mentioning at the time or for the next 50 years. It may be that, not possessing a local newspaper, the events in Mount Morgan simply weren't well reported, but they are only a short distance from Rockhampton and events in Mount Morgan do appear to be well-covered in the Rockhampton. Of course if children were donating, I guess it would be in a very small currency like a penny. It is not clear if the donations were monetary or for melting down. There were many "penny" subscription schemes in towns at the time of the Mafeking relief, usually to send a telegram to Baden-Powell to congratulate him, these subscriptions were from adults though not children. The things that troubles me most is how long it would have take children to raise the money for a 360kg bell (which we know is in place at most 6 months after the relief of Mafeking). Meanwhile the mine itself is in its heyday, and copper is the mineral it has in largest quantities, and the mine is liberal in its donations to the town and its amenities. We know the bell is made by the mine. Why would the mine need to receive pennies from school children, when it has stockpiles of copper at its disposal? Isn't it more likely the mine simply made the bell themselves and donated it to the town hall? I would be interested in other's opinions about how to deal with this story about the schoolchildren and their pennies? Or if anyone else knows of any earlier source in relation to the bell's history? Kerry (talk) 07:10, 31 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting find! I would deal with it by stating what we know about the story about the school children - that it is not mentioned in contemporaneous sources, and then document what the sources have to say about the story chronologically without necessarily needing to form a definitive conclusion. I agree that it is unlikely to be a case of not being well reported, considering that Trove has over 8,500 hits for "Mount Morgan" in 1900. The Drover's Wife (talk) 07:37, 31 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]