119 



OUE COAL AND COAL POETS. 



Br James Manning, Esq. 



{^Read before the Royal Society, 3rd September, 1873.] 



I .BEG briefly to mention tliat I had it in view to attach an 

 appendix to my late paper that was read before this Society last 

 month. I had desired to postpone such action until the next 

 meeting in October, partly because I am not prepared at present, 

 and partly because I thought that I might by that time see and 

 hear of all objections that might be raised against the proposal 

 for the development of the Southern Coal Melds, and of the 

 Illawarra lands generally, and that I might gain further informa- 

 tion with reference to the proposal. 



In my late paper I omitted a few interesting matters, from a 

 fear. that it was already too long, and that I might weary the 

 Society by any prolongation. 



The newspaper discussions that have followed on the reading 

 of my paper before the Society, give evidence that I need not 

 trouble you again with any replies to objections raised. I have 

 had the pleasure of setting the ball going. I must now leave it 

 ssdth others to play the game out. 



But as I may consider the opportunity thus lost of affixing an 

 appendix to my late paper, I will be contented by availing myself 

 of this evening's meeting to say that, in a late visit that I made 

 to Illawarra, I discovered how I could amend the plan, at the 

 Bulli and Wollongong end, in such manner as to enable us to 

 obtain the coal for quite eighteen-pence per ton less than by 

 sinking for it at the dip behind the Bulli Mountain, as I had 

 proposed ; that i-s to say, by taking the line to the east of the 

 coal range, and by this means getting the coal by tunnels at the 

 outcrop. 



Hereby I am thoroughly convinced that Nature could not have 

 done more for Sydney and for this Colony than she has done by 

 this great gift, namely, by that of this Southern Coal, aided by 

 the most extraordinary natural facilities of bringing the same 

 from Illawarra and Port Hacking Creek by one of the easiest 

 railroads ever to be made over and along a mountain coast. This 

 • route will present no great engineering difiiculties, and may not 

 have any heavier gradient than 1 in 45, which will enable an 

 ordinary railway engine to bring probably 500 tons of coal to the 



