Page 4   SOUVENIR-CHARTERS TOWERS, 1872 TO JULY, 1950

which was described as a "jeweler's shop." These mines in after years paid thousands of pounds in dividends.
Then followed the Brilliant St. George, Brilliant Freehold, Brilliant Extended and others, allot which turned out to be rich mines and paid thousands in dividends. The same occurred in the Day Dawn group, Day Dawn Gold 'Mines, Mills United, Block and Whyndham and others.
It was considered that there were two lays of reef in the Day Dawn and Brilliant, and it is considered to this day that the cap of the Brilliant has never been discovered.

The reefs in Charters Towers were considered true fissure veins, forming" a figure which was compared by Mr. Jack, Government Geologist, to that of a horseshoe with narrow veins at the heels, broadening towards the toe, where the agglomeration of veins is the thickest. It was reckoned that the Day Dawn line of reef was situated, at the middle of the bend near the toe of the horseshoe near which were also the Brilliant, the Queen, the Whyndham, North Australian, Victory and Victoria lines of reefs, the extreme west end of the Day Dawn line No.8 Day Dawn and the Great Britain being at one heel and the extreme north eastern end of the Queen line (Sunburst) being at the Other heel of the shoe. The reefs dipped mostly at an angle varying from 30 degrees to 45 degrees, all towards the centre of the horseshoe, and owing to the dipping of the reefs, it often followed that one reef underlaid another, and in 'consequence a piece of ground contained a great number of reefs one under the other, as was the case of the New Queen Gold Mine, which was one of the Queenton mines which contained within its boundaries a greater number of reefs than any other lease of similar area in the whole of the field.
It was stated by Geologist Jack that after closely examining the field he formulated the theory that inasmuch as the reefs dipped like a funnel towards the centre of the horseshoe he believed that rich gutters of gold, somewhere at depth, in the neighbourhood of a line running east and west along Millchester Road would be found. The development of the field in this area proved this theory, as when the deeper mines were worked more gold was found and the shoots of gold in the various reefs were found to have a regular tendency towards the theoretical centre of the funnel or horseshoe dip towards the northeast whilst the shoots in mines situated in the eastern portion-Brilliant, Queen Mines and Victoria and others dip towards the north-west, that is, all towards a common point or centre.
The Queen Cross, Band of Hope, Victoria and Queen were all rich mines and good dividend payers.
In the year 1916 the field started to wane and a proposition was put to the government of the day (J. G. Appel, Premier) for a grant of £60,000 to put down a shaft in Lissner Park, and another £60,000 was to be added by the company carrying out the work. The grant was not approved, with the result that the field dwindled, the population going to sugar, dairying", cattle raising, sheep raising, etc., in the north, and today the whole of North Queensland has benefited by the population that was brought by the discovery of this field. During the war period, 1914-1918, many of the plants in Charters Towers were broken up for scrap, and I venture to say had these plants been retained that there would have been mines working now, as the price of gold would have brought in speculators.
It is still thought that the putting down of a deep shaft in Lissner Park would open up the field again, and it has been stated that should the present Wallis's Day Dawn operations get the Day Dawn reef, it will prove the reef underlaying the park. At one time there was a model of all the mining shafts in Charters Towers at the School of Mines showing the reefs worked, and from this every indication pointed to Lissner Park.