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ANCIENT NEWCASTLE.
The laying out of Newcastle
Dangar in 1823, and his observations on the
town and port, are the chief features of the
forty-second article on Early Newcastle,
published on page 9. Mr. Dangar mentions
the withdrawal of the convicts from New-
castle in 1822, and their removal to Port
Macquarie. Not until they were sent away
was the land on the Hunter River thrown
open for settlement. He says that Sir
Thomas Brisbane, who was Governor of
the colony at that time, again named the
town King's Town, after its founder. Go-
vernor King. But when he wrote in 1827.
he spoke of it chiefly by the name of New-
castle; and it is evident that the desire of
the residents that it should be called New-
castle had by that time prevailed. In 1827
there were not more than 30 private houses
in the town, and the free residents num-
bered about 200. Mr. Dangar, after refer-
ring to the town, went on to speak of the
Government's iil success in the working of
the coalmine, and the leasing of the mine
to the Australian Agricultural Company. The
company did not get possession of the mine
as soon so it had expected, and an unsuc-
cessful attempt was made to work coal at
Port Stephens. Mr. Dangar concluded this
portion of his book with a prophecy that
Newcastle must become an important in-
dustrial centre and the port of this portion
of the colony, and that "it will be inferior
only to the city of government, Sydney, in
the scale of the rising towns of New South
Wales."
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