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In the neighborhood of Newcastle there are seven-teen seams, from 3 feet to 12 feet thick, and of various qualities, several of which are worked in the different collieries of the district, some by free level but generally from shafts from 36 feet to 365 feet deep; they are not much troubled with water, and as a rule the pumping apparatus is worked by the winding engine, and this is found sufficient to keep the mines dry. Through the kindness of Mr. J. B. Winship, the Colliery Viewer of the Australian Agricultural Company, (generally known as the A.A. Co.) we were enabled to inspect their very fine and extensive mines. One of the principal of these is 200 feet deep, 14 feet diameter, and bricked from top to bottom, as it is through soft clay with a great deal of quicksand, and is sunk with great difficulty. The seam at this shaft is about 11 feet thick, mostly clean coal, with two small bands; it is worked on the North of England plan of "pillar and stall," eight yards being taken away and five yards left to support the roof, five feet of the bottom is worked off a few yards in advance and the remainder brought down afterwards, the partings are good and coal though hard is free; very little timber is used even in these wide workings, which shows that the roof is strong and good; there is a slight dip of about 1 in 20 to S.W., and on the whole is very favorable for working. Mr. Winship says that in about 1½ miles this seam varies from 3 feet to 12 feet in thickness. The coal is brought from the face of the workings to the bottom of the shaft in wagons, each containing half-a-ton, and drawn by horses, two of these are taken up the shaft in one cage three times a minute, i.e. 3 tons per minute, so that 1,800 tons may be drawn out of this shaft in 10 hours constant work, or allowing for delays say 1,400 tons, but the greatest quantity yet raised in one day at "pillar and stall" was 993 tons. There are 280 men digging coal, exclusive of those employed in other work both above and below ground. The men at the shaft, screening, putting into railway wagons, and other work above and below ground amounts to 2s. 6d. per ton, so that the coal costs 6s. 6d. per ton in railway wagons at the pit's mouth. From there it is drawn by locomotive engines about two miles to the shipping place and sold on board ship at 10s. per ton, or more generally 9s. per ton in the case of large contracts; thus leaving only 2s. 6d. per ton for haulage from the mine to the shipping place, putting on board ship, wear and tear of material, and interest of money, &c., &c. Two years ago the price of coal on board ship at Newcastle was from 13s. 6d. to 14s. 6d. per ton, and this great fall in the price is having a most depressing influence on the mining interest, many collieries being working at a great loss, and few if any doing more than paying expenses.

The coal from the A.A. Co.'s mines is conveyed along the private railway to the private shipping places of the company, where vessels of large tonnage load in the simple shoots from the railway wagons. Everything connected with their works is substantially good, and the arrangements both above and below ground reflect the greatest credit on the manager of the works.

The Company is very wealthy; a great deal of the land in, and surrounding the town of Newcastle being their private property, and this land is being sold at from £3,000 to £5,000 per acre. There is no board of directors in the colony, and the whole executive power of the company is vested in the hands of the General Superintendent, and the Colliery Viewer, so that on the whole the A.A. Co. is in as good a position for producing coal cheaply, and in large quantities, as any mining establishment in the Newcastle District.

The coal from some of the other collieries is brought by private railways to the Hunter River, and there discharged into boxes placed in barges, which are towed down to the port by steam tugs to vessels anchored in the stream; the boxes are then lifted by steam cranes, and the coal discharged into the hold of the vessel, and the boxes replaced in the barges to be sent up the river again for a fresh supply. But the greatest quantity is brought by the Government Railway, in boxes containing four tons each, two of which are placed on one wagon; as this railway is continued to the end of the wharf, these wagons are placed close alongside the ships to be loaded; the boxes are then lifted by steam cranes from the wagons to the coal discharged, and the boxes returned to the wagons. This operation requires about four minutes, or one ton per minute, but allowing for the removal of wagons and other delays, one crane is capable of putting about 45 tons per hour on board ship; for the use of the cranes the Government charges 6d. per ton, and extra for the weight of the box, say roughly 2s. 6d. for each box of four tons. Doubtless before long arrangements will be made to elevate the railway high enough above the water to allow the wagons to discharge themselves at once into vessels, without the aid of these cranes, for fine pieces of machinery as they are in themselves, they are clumsy makeshifts when applied to shipping coals, and ought to be abandoned as soon as possible, for a bulky article like coal, should never be lifted after it is out of the mine, till it is put on board ship.

These remarks apply particularly to Newcastle, where the powers of producing coal, so far exceed the powers of shipping it; so not only are vessels often delayed for weeks in the port, but the mines are stopped because ships cannot be loaded fast enough. The great want at Newcastle is wharf accommodation, and an economical and expeditious mode of shipping coal.

The harbor itself is naturally pretty good, has been very much improved, and is still capable of great improvement, particularly in internal arrangements. It is formed by the mouth of the Hunter River, which discharges itself into the sea 75 miles north of Sydney; and is protected from the open sea by a reef of rocks which stretches out from the main land on the south side in a N.N.E. direction, nearly parallel with the line of coast north of the river; at the end of this reef there is an isolated flat rock, upwards of 100 feet high, on which the lighthouse and signal-station are situated. This reef, over which, in its natural state, the sea breaks furiously in east and south-east gales, has been taken advantage of as the foundation of a breakwater, which has been constructed at a great expense; so that now the interior of the harbor is thoroughly well sheltered from all weather. From the N. and N.N.E. it is naturally protected by the overlapping of the coast, so that the harbor is both safe and easy of access in almost any weather, and, except in severe E. and S.E. gales, can be entered at any time, indeed there would I have heard, there are very few days in the year, when vessels cannot enter or leave the port in safety. The breakwater, however, on which so much depends, will be a constant source of trouble and expense, for in S.E. gales, which prevail on this coast, the sea breaks heavily against it; when we were there it was very much injured, and except prompt and vigorous steps are taken, I will not be at all surprised to hear, that in some of these gales, the sea has made a clean breach through it, and exposed the inside of