242 



AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



South of the Clarence sugar-growing is 

 not profitable. The cane thrives luxuriantly 

 enough, and many settlers went into the 

 cultivation with high hopes ; but there is just 

 enough frost in winter to spoil the sap, and 

 after repeated experiments the attempt had 

 to be abandoned. But both in respect to soil 

 and climate the district is admirably adapted 

 to the growth of maize, and this is the great 

 support of the farmers, the market for the 

 produce being principally in Sydney and in 

 Melbourne. 



The Nambucca and Bellingen Rivers, 

 though small streams, are the outlets for rich 

 districts, in which there are many prosperous 

 settlers whose only want is better means of 

 transit. Farther south lies the large water- 

 shed of the Macleay River. The port here 

 is in about the same latitude as Armidale, 

 but the track up to the table-land is very 

 rough, hence the commercial intercourse be- 

 tween the coast and the country inland is 

 limited. The township of the Macleay Valley 

 is Kempsey, with about fifteen hundred inhabi- 

 tants. The people build great hopes for the future, first on the Government expenditure 

 on the great breakwater at Trial Bay where the chief labour prison of the colony is 

 situated and then on the fine harbour of refuge 

 which will be created when the breakwater is 

 finished. Three little villages are situated on the 

 Macleay- Gladstone, Frederickton and Smith- 

 town, of which the last is the most important. 

 Farther south again lies the similar water-shed of 

 the Hastings River, of which the town is Port 

 Macquarie, with a population of about nine 



* 



hundred. It was a convict settlement in the early 

 days, and many substantial buildings, for which 

 it is difficult to find a use, still remain as relics 

 of the olden time. The newer town is simply 

 the business centre of the agricultural district 

 and the pastoral background. The products of 

 the district are maize, barley, oats and potatoes'; 

 the cultivation of the vine is also an important 

 industry. Copper has been found in the vicinity, 

 and, towards the head of the River, gold in THE WIIAKF AT GKAFTON. 



A KKACH ON Till. CLARENCE. 



