SELLING AGENCIES. 87 



tically all the foreign business has been transacted through 

 London, where the different collieries had their agents, who 

 attended to the chartering, etc. ; now the individuals will have 

 to act according to the decision of the board instead of on 

 their own responsibility. 



The vend has also agreed with four shipping companies, 

 viz., Howard Smith Proprietary Company, the Huddart, 

 Parker Proprietary Company, the Adelaide Steamship Com- 

 pany, and Messrs. Mcllwraith, McEacharn and Company, that 

 they only shall be supplied with coal intended for consump- 

 tion in Victoria, South Australia, West Australia, and Queens- 

 land. This excludes Messrs. Scott Fell and Company, James 

 Patterson and Company, and the Melbourne Steamship Com- 

 pany, who, together with the favoured four, have had the 

 freighting of coal to other States largelv in their hands. 



The Southern Coal-Owners' Agency represents the follow- 

 ing collieries: Mount Kembla, Mount Pleasant, Osborne- 

 Wallsend (Mt. Kiera), Coal Cliff, and the Metropolitan. In 

 the hands of a good business man and a man of tact, this 

 agency should be the means of benefiting both the mine- 

 owners and miners, and indirectly the district, by opening up 

 fresh markets and limiting competition. For some years 

 Scott Fell and Co. will have the control of the output from 

 South Clifton. G. S. Yuill and Co. dispose of the output from 

 the Bulli and Corrimal-Balgownie collieries; while the North 

 Bulli or Coledale and the South Bulli-Bellambi collieries each 

 act as their own agents. 



The Lithgow Coal Association is the selling agency for 

 the five principal collieries at Lithgow, viz., Oakey Park, Zig- 

 Zag, Yale of Clwydd, Hermitage, and Lithgow Valley. This 

 association not only provides most of the coal used in tlu 1 

 Western district, but is expanding trade by shipping coal 

 from Darling Harbour. 



Shipping Facilities. 



Some of the coal from the South Coast goes 

 to Sydney for shipment, and naturally all the coal 

 from the western field for export finds an outlet at Darling 

 Harbour. This coal is shipped from the Pyrmont wharves, 

 of which there are two, with four berths; two are 500ft. long, 

 and two 470ft. long, the depth of water at low tide being 25 

 to 28ft. There is a 15-ton steam crane at three of the berths. 

 A train of hopper trucks is run down near the ships, and two 

 trucks are drawn at a time by horses which fetch them opposite 

 the steam crane. It takes three minutes to hook on the body 

 of a truck, hoist, empty, and replace it. At this rate, as eaoh 

 truck is supposed to hold ten tons, they should load 200 tons 

 an hour, but 150 tons is nearer the actual mark. Fig. 29. 



