The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Morgan, William Pritchard
Morgan, William Pritchard, M.P., was born in 1844, and having been admitted a solicitor, practised at Newport, Monmouthshire. He emigrated to Queensland in 1867, and practised his profession in the north, where he gained a reputation as a mining lawyer. He also became largely interested in mining ventures in North Queensland. In 1885 he returned to England and established the mercantile firm of W. Pritchard Morgan & Co. in Queen Victoria Street, London. Subsequently, when the New South Wales contingent was offered for service in the Soudan, Mr. Morgan volunteered a handsome subscription towards sending a Queensland contingent to take part with the British forces in the campaign, Mr. Morgan now turned his attention to the mining industry in Wales, and having discovered gold in apparently payable quantities at Dolgelly, formed a company to work the auriferous deposits. In Oct. 1888 a vacancy occurred in the representation of Merthyr Tydvil in the House of Commons. Mr. Morgan thereupon became a candidate in the independent Liberal interest, and was returned by a very large majority over the official Liberal nominee. Both in and out of Parliament, Mr. Morgan has conducted a vigorous crusade against the antiquated system of gold mining royalties by which in England the working of auriferous deposits is hampered and strangled, Very considerable concessions have in consequence been wrung from the Government, though Mr. Morgan himself has been heavily mulcted by the exactions of the Treasury in his plucky attempt to exploit the auriferous resources or his native Wales. In 1891 Mr. Morgan took up the question of Welsh disestablishment, and made a very able and exhaustive speech in bringing the subject under the notice of the House of Commons. He also intervened with the weight of local knowledge in the discussion on the proposed renewal of the importation of Kanaka labourers into Queensland, defending the policy of the Griffith Government At the general election in July 1892 Mr. Morgan was again returned for Merthyr.