THE TOWNS OF NEW SOUTH WAJJ-.\. 



223 



possesses also a fine building in its School of Arts. The scam of coal worked by the 

 Co-operative Colliery is the same as that worked by the \Yallsrtul Company. 



The population of Minmi is about two thousand, the greater numb.-r b-in^ employed 

 in the local collieries, the property of Messrs. J. and A. Brown. Minmi is about six 

 miles from the railway station of Hexham, which again is distant from Newcastle four- 

 teen miles. A private line, how- 

 ever, connects Minmi with the Great 

 Northern route and the shipping- 

 shoots at Hexham. At one pit over 

 six hundred hands are employed, 

 and they raise above a thousand 

 tons of coal a day. In the vicinity 

 of the town oranges are cultivated 

 with considerable success. 



Anvil Creek and Greta are 

 adjoining collieries, which, although 

 lying beyond the town of Mait- 

 land, are properly adjuncts of the 

 Newcastle coal-trade. The seam 

 at the Anvil Creek colliery, known 

 as "Farthings," is over fourteen feet 

 in thickness, while that of the Greta 

 Coal and Shale Company is nearly 

 as thick. The latter mine has two 

 shafts, one of which is over two 

 hundred feet in depth. Its average 

 output is considerably over fifteen 

 hundred tons, raised by nearly three 

 hundred hands. The population of 

 the district is about two thousand. 



Up the Hunter River or by the Great Northern Railway is the approach to the 

 larger areas whose commerce focalizes naturally in the coal-port. A somewhat uninteresting 

 river about its ocean estuary is the Hunter; flat as the fen-country of Lincolnshire, 

 but with mangroves meeting the low and luxuriant scrub-growths of the fresh-water 

 country about innumerable reaches and lagoons ; and yet it is a country that in places 

 lacks not sentiment or beauty 'of a peculiar kind. Exquisite pictures may indeed be 

 seen from the railway line, where some mile-broad swamp is set in low. wooded knolls, 

 the feathery oaks rising dark above the lower foliage; light grass of a delicate green 

 rustling over the surface, and the water shining beneath. Long-legged cranes may be 

 seen flapping lazy wings, or a little herd of cattle wading knee-deep, giving life and 

 warmth to a picture that might otherwise be monotonous. But the ground rises slowly, 

 and hardens with every mile. The salt swamp-foliage is left behind. The black soil 

 sweetens and takes on a rich coat of lucerne, or a luxurious garment of sorghum, 

 maize, or oats. The broad flats consist of alluvial drift many feet deep, and the lucerne- 



ST. MARYS CHURCH, WtST MA II I. AM ). 



