32 J. H. MAIDEN. 
cranes, etc., has now been done, and the depositing of stone will 
shortly be commenced. 
The dredging plant in use by the department consists of fourteen 
dredges, fourteen grab bucket dredges, eight suction dredges, five 
combined grab and suction dredges, twenty-one tugs, and ninety 
punts, employment being found on these for about three hundred 
and fifty men, and the cost of working amounting to about £75,000 
per annum. 
The use of sand pump or suction dredges some six or seven 
years ago had had the effect of reducing, by about half, the aver- 
age cost per ton of material raised, and of increasing very largely 
the total yearly output. Indeed, so successful and economical 
have they proved, that it was considered advisable to convert a 
number of the grab dredges into combined grab and suction 
dredges. Five of these have already been altered, and two others 
will shortly be ready for work. The grab has been retained on 
these dredges for dealing with stiff material which could not be 
pumped, lifting snags, etc., but most of the material met with, 
where these dredges are worked, is of a soft nature and easily 
lifted and discharged by the pump. In reclamation works, at the 
heads of bays, behind river training walls, etc., the suction dredges 
have been found very economical, for not only the material at the © 
site but that raised by ladder and grab dredges working in the 
neighbourhood is utilised for reclaiming, the latter being brought 
alongside in punts, dumped and pumped ashore through flexible © 
jointed pipes to where required, up to a distance of from 2,509 
to 3,000 feet, at a cost of about a quarter of the older system. 
The following shows the areas in Sydney Harbour which have 
been wholly or partially reclaimed in this way :—Rozelle Bay 
(Johnstone’s Creek), forty-eight acres, partly reclaimed ; Rozelle 
Bay (White’s Creek), twenty-seven acres ; White Bay, twelve and 
a half acres, complete ; Snail’s Bay, five and a half acres, com- 
plete ; Neutral Bay, seven and a half acres, complete ; Careening 
Cove, three and three quarter acres, complete; Callan Park, five 
and a half acres, complete ; Long Cove, fifty-eight acres, partly 
