Ellis Albert Fuller 1869 1902 Auckland Nz

edmondsallan - Hello - Although " Ellis " changed farming / agriculture and how we farmed in general , because of his discovery of " phosphates " he seems to be a forgotten pioneer that gave us the means to be the best dairying nation in the world . I think he deserves to be taken out of the closet , spruced up a . bit and given a big thank you by all " Kiwi's "

Ellis, Albert Fuller
Phosphate prospector, chemical analyst, mining manager and commissioner

Albert Fuller Ellis's discovery of extensive phosphate deposits on Nauru and Ocean Island was to transform agriculture in New Zealand and Australia. He was born in Roma, Queensland, on 28 August 1869, the third son of George Coxon Ellis, a chemist, and his wife, Anne Eliza Izod. The family moved in October 1869 to New Zealand, where George Ellis became a farmer in the Waikato district. Albert was educated at Cambridge, attending the district high school in 1884 and 1885. At the age of 18 he joined his father and his brothers James and George in working for John T. Arundel and Company of London, which had widespread trading interests in the Pacific islands. It also invested in plantation development and prospected for the guano that could be found on many of the low-lying coral islands of the central Pacific.

Ellis spent some three years in the Phoenix Islands. He planted coconuts on Hull and helped to manage the phosphate workings on Baker and Howland Islands where he supervised a workforce of nearly 100 men and tested samples in the rudimentary laboratory. In 1890, most of the known guano deposits in the Pacific islands having been worked out, the company turned its attention to the north Queensland coast. Ellis was involved with mining operations at Raine and Lady Elliott Islands and with prospecting on the Bunker and Capricorn groups.

In 1899 Ellis was transferred temporarily to Sydney as the company's analyst. Soon after his arrival he conducted chemical tests on a curious rock used as a doorstop in the office of the Pacific Islands Company, as the restructured Arundel company was now called. The rock, thought to be fossilised wood, had been brought back from German-administered Nauru some years before. Ellis thought it looked more like rock phosphate - a hunch confirmed by his analysis.

In March 1900 Ellis sailed for the central Pacific with his wife, Florence Christina Stewart, whom he had married at Auckland on 31 January. She soon returned to Sydney because of ill health, and her pregnancy was to end in miscarriage. Ellis's cursory examination of Ocean Island (Banaba), a raised atoll close to Nauru, confirmed enormous deposits of alluvial and rock phosphate based not on guano but ancient marine sedimentation. Ellis conducted negotiations with the leaders of Ocean Island's Banaban people, while the Pacific Islands Company exploited its imperial connections to secure a mining licence and British annexation for the island; it also won a mining concession at Nauru. Ellis's agreement with the Banabans - that the company pay £50 a year in return for the exclusive right to mine for 999 years - was harshly criticised when it became known; it was later modified to provide royalties and compensation for mining damage.

Ellis became the mining manager for the company, renamed the Pacific Phosphate Company in 1902, and oversaw operations at Nauru when mining began there . Till we meet again - Regards - edmondsallan