220 AUSTRALA SI A ILL US TRA TED. 



dredged, and where necessary excavated ; docks will be made, and wharves for the extended 

 commerce will till all the available areas in the Port and continue far up the River; the 

 metals of the North will be brought down to the pit-mouths for smelting ; manufac- 

 tories growing and commerce increasing, so that the coal-city will divide with Sydney 

 the commerce of New South Wales. This is not an extravagant forecast, as the 

 Port and district have extraordinary resources, which the new line of railway from 

 Strathfield to Waratah will greatly develope. The quantity of coal raised for one year was 

 over two million tons, and Newcastle is besides increasingly becoming a ^/^V-port 

 for wool, the shipment of which for the London market during the wool-season of 

 1889 numbering nearly forty-eight thousand bales. 



Stockton, a busy mining and ship-building suburb of Newcastle, is situated on the 

 northern side of the harbour. Amongst the various industries that support it lime- 

 burning and steam-saw-milling take an important place. In connection with the ship- 

 building yards is a patent slip constructed with a view of repairing ships of the largest 

 tonnage, while the work-shops are fully abreast of the latest improvements of the trade. 

 The shears here have been erected to lift a weight of thirty tons. The principal coal- 

 seam of the district has been proved to underlie this suburb, and shafts have been sunk 

 to work it. At Stockton begins the northern breakwater, several hundred feet in length, 

 but it is at present incomplete. When finished it will, in conjunction with the southern 

 dyke, keep the debouchure of the Hunter River within a comparatively narrow channel, 

 and thus increase the scour of the harbour. The population of Stockton is about eight 

 hundred, and communication with Newcastle is kept up by means of half-hourly steamers. 



An important suburb of Newcastle, and one which includes the villages of Tighe's 

 Hill, Port Waratah, Islington and Linwood, is the colliery municipality of Wickham, 

 distant from the city about one mile. It has a population of over two thousand, and 

 ratable property valued at nearly three hundred thousand sterling annually. At 

 Wickham one of the principal industries is the Hunter River Copper Works, with 

 twenty-two furnaces manipulated by a large number of hands. Messrs. Hudson Brothers 

 have here large engineering works ; and here, too, are located the Sydney Soap Company's 

 manufactory, cordial factories, saw-mills, and various wool-washing and fell-mongering 

 establishments. Wickham includes the Ferndale and the Maryville collieries. 



Hamilton, a colliery suburb of Newcastle, is the site of the Australian Agricultural 

 Company's mining operations. The great shaft was sunk many years ago through a 

 troublesome quicksand, but the seam is of first-class quality, its cleanness causing it to be 

 much appreciated for generating gas, as well as for household use. Several bores have 

 been put. down at different points of the Company's large estate with a view of attacking 

 the seam at other places. The town has a population of about two thousand inhabi- 

 tants, the great majority of whom find employment for their labour in coal-mining. The 

 Castlemaine Brewery has a branch here, and here also is the patent fuel factory, which 

 takes the small coal from the different pits and fashions it into oval blocks, turning out 

 about sixty tons of fuel a day. The ratable annual value of the property in this 

 district is estimated at over three hundred thousand sterling. 



Waratah is not now so important as a coal-mining centre as it was some years ago, 

 the seam on the original estate having been worked out. The Waratah Coal Company 



