SYDNEY AND PRINCIPAL TOWNS. 269 



telegrapli office. In tlic nciglibourliood arc tlircc steam flour mills, a 

 galvanised-iron manufactory, four large coach factoi'ics, boot factory. 

 steam saw-mills, and a brewery. The district contains excellent agri- 

 cultural land, and over 17,000 acres are under tillage. Grafton is 

 distant 528 miles by rail, and 342 by sea, north-east from Syduev. It 

 has ratable property worth to3,8GG, and is an important seaport on 

 the Clarence. The principal buildings are the court-house, school of 

 arts, and post-office^ with banks and insurance offices ; an Anglican 

 cathedral in process of building, and several other handsome churches. 

 The town possesses two saw-mills, two engineering establishments, a 

 tannery and gasworks, and is the centre of the sugar industrv, the 

 Colonial Sugar Refining Company^s mill there being the largest in 

 Australia. Wagga Wagga and Dubbo are both centres of pastoral 

 districts, though of late years agriculture has made marked advances. 

 The rating values are upwards of £o2,000 and £48,000 respectively. 

 Armidale is chiefly remarkable as the Cathedral centre of the New 

 England district. It has fine churches and public buildings, a rating 

 value of £32,420, and flourishing agricultural surroundings. Bourko 

 is the pastoral centre of the West — the back country. Orange is a 

 pleasant toAvn on the western road beyond Bathurst, and an agricul- 

 tural centre. Wollongong is a picturesquely situated town on the south 

 coast, and our third seaport, being the shipping-place of coal and 

 dairy-produce from the southern districts. Broken Hill, 925 miles 

 west from Sydney, is the centre of the largest silver mines in the world ; 

 and Parramatta is the old capital of the colony, and at present practi- 

 cally a railway siiburb of Sydney at 15 miles distance. 



