116 OTJR COAL AND OUE COAL PORTS. 



have before stated, as they now enjoy at Preibourg. Our power 

 would thus have to be applied by all the river waters being 

 brought to fall over a graduated rocky weir, to give direct action 

 on undershot water-wheels, in the same manner as is done at 

 Greneva — where shafting applied to one single large water-wheel, 

 driven by the Rhone, gives power enough to pumps to raise water 

 above the highest levels of, and for the supply of all Geneva. 



Many will exclaim against the magnitude of, and the risk of 

 failure of making such dam (as I propose), tight enough to 

 obtain only four feet head of water. But what is it after all ? 

 The affair would not exceed 350,000 cubic yards of stone and 

 clay work, and should be viewed in the light of a national under- 

 taking that would be worth all the risk of failure of making it 

 watertight — when there would be, under the worst circumstances, 

 a certain resultant benefit to Sydney of pi^ocuring a direct railway 

 communication with our Southern coal-fields and with all the 

 Illawarra lands. 



But admitting the success of such undertaking being made 

 watertight and the inner waters being rendered fresh, then the 

 beneficial consequences would be beyond price. Motory power 

 could be obtained to a very large extent as long as there was 

 inflow from those tributaries of Greorge's Kiver, which drain such 

 an enormous extent of country ; and Sydney might have a never- 

 failing supply of water, at a cost that would be less than nil, if 

 the existing water reserves were sold for that necessary extension 

 of the city that wovild be required on the establishment of a rail- 

 way line and a great coal trade, &c., with Illawarra. 



And now, finally, and in anticipation of Sydney's future great- 

 ness, I venture to suggest that twenty years more may not pass 

 away before it will be found to be necessary to meet the immensely 

 increasing Hunter Eiver and Northern trade (quite irrespectively 

 of the coal trade at Newcastle), by connecting the Grreat Northern 

 Railway Line from Maitland with Sydney, by another line that 

 will intersect rich coal-fields, will cross the Hawkesbury by a 

 tubular, a suspension, or by a high-level bridge, and arrive by 

 easy gradients at the North Shore, opposite Cockatoo Island and 

 North Balmain. 



Sydney would thus have another prominent source for increas- 

 ing the future export of coal when it may be required, and thus 

 complete her ability of shipping best house coal from the North, 

 best steaming coal from the South, excellent and condensed steam- 

 ing coal from Bowenfels, bright house and gas coal from Wallera- 

 wang, and the finest oil shales in the World from the West. 



But even without this ultimate connection of Port Jackson with 

 the Northern " outcrop" of our immense coal basin, it would 

 follow that if the easy approach to the Southern coal-field by rail 

 to Sydney be brought about, we should render such great support 



