Chapter I: Dawn of Mining Days  (continued)

The deserted shoreline of Shoal Bay, in the eighteenth century no less than today, was visually delightful, but virtually devoid of economic mineral deposits or sheltered coves. The area became a mine site primarily because the nearby town of St. John's harboured homesick Britons, some wealthy enough to relieve their boredom by involvement in a mining venture.

One particularly frustrated man was Alexander Dunn of Scotland, who enlivened his job as the St. John's Customs Collector by imposing stiff fines upon honest men and accepting bribes from rogues.⁽⁵⁾ Around 1773, Dunn learned of a small copper deposit in Shoal Bay and asked two influential British friends, John Agnew and George Stewart, to approach King George III for a mining grant. The resulting decree surpassed Dunn's wildest expectations: on 22 February 1775 he, Agnew and Stewart received the mineral rights to the whole of Newfoundland and the coast of Labrador for 999 years!⁽⁶⁾ Had they made a concentrated effort to locate and develop worth-while orebodies, they might have lived in splendour for the rest of their days. Foolishly, they dabbled in mining, neglected the terms of the grant and so forfeited its privileges.

The three men attempted to work their Shoal Bay copper showing by hiring a dozen Cornishmen and a Cornish mine captain, Thomas Halse, to come to Newfoundland in May 1776. (Cornwall, with its lengthy mining tradition, was a natural source of experienced miners.) Whatever misgivings Halse may have had about the Shoal Bay ore and harbour facilities, he gamely ordered the miners to sink a shaft, drive out a level and remove some ore. Before long, the men had to stop; the best veins extended beneath the sea and could not be mined without risk of severe flooding. The little ore that did reach England provided barely enough returns to cover the venture's operating costs, let alone pay the 10 per cent mining royalty imposed by the Crown. Thomas Halse suspended mining in the fall of 1778 and, with relief, closed down the mine after French sailors kidnapped Alexander Dunn in late 1778 or early 1779.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert. (I/1.) (24Kb)

The Shoal Bay mine lay flooded and all but forgotten for another 60 years. Indeed, it might have remained so had not Britain's chronic troubles with American privateers and French warships impelled the Crown to encourage valour in its navy by presenting Crown land to victorious officers. One such man, Captain James Pearl, especially fancied the idea of mining and on 16 October 1839 received a grant covering the Shoal Bay site. Although Pearl had little time to enjoy his mine property - he died on 13 February 1840 - he is remembered today by the town of Mount Pearl that lies on the outskirts of St. John's.

Newfoundland, around the time of Pearl's death, differed vastly from Newfoundland in the days of Alexander Dunn. By the mid-1850s, the Island was a well-established British colony with its own resident governor, House of Assembly and Supreme Court. The economy survived on fishing, agriculture and political dealings, all three of which lay close to the heart of a man named Charles Fox Bennett.

Charles Bennett was born in Dorset, England in 1793 and moved to St. John's around 1800. Over the next 40 years he established a brewery, distillery, shipyard, fishing fleet, sawmill and foundry and worked as a member of the House of Assembly and the Agriculture Society.⁽⁷⁾ He also became the first proponent of a Newfoundland mining industry.

Bennett gave an early indication of his future obsession with minerals by volunteering to walk across Newfoundland with explorer William E. Cormack in 1822.⁽⁸⁾ His position as a stipendiary magistrate prevented him from taking the trip, but he bided his time and nurtured assorted businesses until, in the 1840s, finances allowed him to begin exploiting the Island's mineral resources in earnest. While pursuing practical aspects of mining he also fostered political ones: between 1851 and 1853 Governor Hamilton granted him exclusive mineral rights to one million acres of land in Fortune and Placentia bays. The grant waived mining royalties for the first ten years and was renewable at the end of its thirty-year term.

Unluckily for Bennet, the grant's delivery coincided with the climax of the debate over responsible government for Newfoundland, a concept that he opposed with volatile speeches. When responsible government arrived in 1855 he paid for his convictions. In 1856, a mob ignited his foundry and tried to prevent firemen from extinguishing the blaze.⁽⁹⁾ Two years later, the Liberal government revenged itself upon Bennett by nullifying the entire one-million-acre grant.

Bennett refused to forfeit the mineral lands. On 7 October 1858, he informed Governor Bannerman:

"...for a period little short of twenty years...my attention had been given to the search for valuable minerals...I imported miners from Wales and Cornwall...and subsequently engaged in England a person of higher scientific attainments who in company with myself made an exploration of a large tract of country in Placentia, Bonavista and Green Bays; ...I engaged the requisite vessels for said survey, provided the necessary appliances for mining purposes and furnished everything at my sole expense...."⁽¹⁰⁾

In the end, the government allowed Bennett to keep ten mining locations of five square miles each, less than one-fifth the acreage of his original claim.

For all its detractors, the Bennett grant was at least nominally intended to encourage mining enterprise in Newfoundland, something to which even the most disdainful politician could not object. Bennett himself became a walking advertisement for Newfoundland minerals. Exaggerated tales delivered during his annual excursions home spurred five English merchants to establish the Newfoundland Mining Association in 1857 with the expressed intention of profitably developing Newfoundland mineral resources. The five men did little more than publish a prospectus, but their managing director in Newfoundland, Frederick Newton Gisbourne, became deeply involved in mining on the Island.