PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 31 



these drawbacks to trade could be overcome was by the 

 construction of costly improvements, which would create 

 sufficient scour to maintain a suitable depth of water on 

 the bar, and also permanently fix the position of the 

 entrance, leaving the silt to be dealt with by dredges. 



Observations and soundings had been carried on for some 

 time at the principal rivers, in order that proper remedial 

 measures could be adopted, when a few years before the 

 period under review, the Government obtained the services 

 of Sir John Ooode, m. inst. c.a, who prepared improvement 

 schemes for a number of the bar harbours. Various modi- 

 fications have been introduced into his designs as more 

 extensive knowledge became available, and although at 

 none of the river entrances, with the exception of the 

 Richmond and the Hunter, is the work actually completed, 

 yet the benefit of the works carried out has been felt for 

 some time. 



Over £3,000,000 had been expended on these improve- 

 ments up to the end of June 1916, exclusive of the large 

 sums spent on Sydney and Newcastle Harbours. 



Table IV shows the distribution of this expenditure, and 

 the extent to which the depth of water has been increased, 

 and in Table V are given some detail statistics of the rivers 

 and their entrances. 



At Port Kembla there has been provided a very effective 

 coal loading apparatus, which, by means of a travelling belt, 

 discharges coal tipped into a large hopper at the shore end 

 of the jetty, into the holds of steamers moored to it; 600 

 tons of coal an hour have been loaded by it into ocean 

 going steamers. 



Newcastle was in 1891 a well equipped port, but the con- 

 stantly increasing trade, and the greater draught of the 

 ships using it, have made necessary many additions. The 

 Northern Breakwater has been extended by 420 feet at a 



