ANNUAL ADDRESS. XLV. 



old ; both of them had many years of useful life, especially that from 

 Mort's. It is only fair to pay a tribute to the faithful work of 

 our local firms when deserved, as it is often discounted by the 

 glitter and paint of imported machinery. 



Although the first Balmain steam ferry boat "Waterman," had 

 an horizontal engine carried over the top of her boiler to drive 

 the paddle wheels, most of the early ferry steamers in Port Jackson 

 had side lever engines; one of these was called the "Pet," and 

 was merely an open boat about thirty feet long with a speed of 

 perhaps three to four miles an hour. Fifty years ago this vessel 

 took passengers over to Balmain from the Gas Works to the 

 Jubilee Dock Bay, in a twenty minutes trip. Other boats includ- 

 ing the horse boat "Brothers," which ran from Pottinger-street to 

 North Shore, had steeple engines. All these early ferry steamers 

 had internal flue boilers, and as salt water was used a compara- 

 tively low pressure was carried, and regular blowing off was 

 necessary. About forty years ago the arrival of three steamers 

 named the "Nautilus," "Pearl," and "Peri," from Messrs. Randolph 

 Elder & Co., for a rival Balmain ferry, threatened to revolutionise 

 colonial ideas and inaugurate a new era in ferry steamers ; they 

 had iron hulls, double oscillating engines, and tubular boilers. 

 The engines had a treadle for each foot to put the "gabs" out of 

 gear, an injection lever for the driver's knees, a throttle valve 

 lever for his elbows, and starting bars for each hand. This gave 

 an air of importance to the men who went through the complicated 

 performance of starting and stopping these boats, but it was too 

 complicated for colonial ideas. Imported ferry boats have never 

 succeeded in displacing the Sydney built ones, and the present 

 most successful Port Jackson Ferry steamers are purely local 

 productions — the result of a gradual development tempered by 

 environment. The Balmain New Ferry Company and their naval 

 architect have made the boldest experiments and widest departures 

 from orthodox practice with great success. Some ferry boats even 

 now have imported engines, although their hulls are locally 

 built, but they certainly do not give less trouble than the colonial 



