PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 65 



turned out, and realising the necessity of fostering such an 

 important business, that the Government, through the Chief 

 Commissioner for Railways, placed with the Clyde Engineer- 

 ing Co. what is probably the largest order ever given for 

 locomotives either here or in any other part of the world, 

 when they last year gave them an order for 300 engines, 

 each weighing about 83^ tons, the contract to be completed 

 in five years, that is at the rate of 5,000 tons per annum. 



At the date that the first contract was given, no works in 

 the State were properly equipped with machinery to have 

 enabled it to be satisfactorily completed within the stipu- 

 lated time, and the Company had to at once expend £15,000 

 in machinery; since then they have extended their work- 

 shops and purchased the most modern plant especially 

 suited for the work, the total outlay during the past six 

 years having amounted to nearly £100,000. 



Another works, the proprietors of which have shown 

 their confidence in the continued prosperity of the State, 

 is Mort's Dock and Engineering Co., which realising that 

 Sydney will some day be a greater port than what it is now, 

 have expended large sums in extending the graving dock 

 accommodation of the port. The dockat Balmain, built many 

 years ago, originally had a length of 450 feet; it has been 

 lengthened and is now 640 feet long, and can be divided 

 into two by a middle caisson; the entrance is 69 feet wide 

 at the cope, and 59 feet on the floor, the depth of water 

 over the sill being 18 feet at spring tide. In 1901 they 

 opened a new graving dock at Woolwich on the Parramatta 

 River, which had a length of 500 feet, with a width of 83 

 feet at the entrance, 75 feet on the floor, and 28 feet of 

 water on the sill at spring tide; this dock has, since its con- 

 struction, been lengthened from time to time and is now 

 850 feet long. The company have found it necessary to 

 remodel much of their works to meet modern conditions, 



E— May 2, 1917. 



