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re-establish the City Corporation. Still, notwithstanding the weakness of his administration, the colony, during his term of office, continued to prosper, and to recover the prestige it had lost with the collapse of the Gawler régime. Agriculture in particular had made important advances, its development being greatly assisted by the invention of improved wheat-harvesting machinery. Governor Robe held office until August, 1848, by which time the population had increased to 38,666, compared with 21,759 in 1845. The ordinary revenue had grown from £32,433 to £82,411 during the same period. The proceeds of the land sales, from the foundation of the Colony to the date of Colonel Robe's departure, amounted to £530,877.

Two years before Governor Robe's departure, Mr. J. Ainsworth Horrocks organised an expedition to solve the problem of the interior. Mr. Horrocks had been in the colony since 1839, and had gained some experience in the work of exploration. He now, in 1846, proposed to cross the head of Spencer's Gulf, and travel north-west from the further side of Lake Torrens. The expedition, which had suffered greatly through want of water and the hostility of the natives, was, however, brought to a tragic close within a month from the date of its inception, by the accidental death of its leader.

On Major Robe's recall, Sir Henry Young was transferred from the Eastern Province of the Cape of Good Hope, of which he was Lieutenant-Governor, to take similar rank in South Australia. He had previously been Governor of Prince Edward's Island. Though not an administrator of remarkable ability, he fulfilled the functions of his office with considerable success, and the province, generally, prospered under his rule. The colony is indebted to him, amongst other things, for the introduction of an extensive main-road system, and the institution of valuable local government organisations in the form of District Councils. In 1851, South Australia experienced a severe, albeit temporary, check in the exodus of population that followed the discovery of gold in Victoria. The attractions of the gold-fields almost defluded the province of its labouring population. Merchants, bankers, and all owners of property were reduced to the severest straits for lack of labour; mines stopped working, business enterprise was arrested, and all branches of industry came to a standstill. At this crisis, AttorneyGeneral (afterwards Sir) Richard D. Hanson, at the suggestion of Mr. G. S. Walters, of the English and South Australian Copper Company, adopted a measure to make gold by weight a legal tender at a fixed standard value. The principle was incorporated in the Bullion Act; the overland escort was organised, and a portion of the wealth won from the Victorian fields by the South Australian diggers was diverted into their own colony, thus exercising a beneficial effect in the restoration of confidence in the resources and credit of the province.

Another event of great historical importance was the opening-up of the Murray River to steam navigation. Captain Cadell had descended the river from Victoria in a canvas boat, and this exploit had drawn

fresh attention to the value of the stream as a means of intercolonial communication, and a source of prospective profitable traffic along its course. Governor Young took a keen interest in the matter. Many accidents had happened at the mouth of the river, but the Governor believed that a good harbour might be constructed at Port Elliott, and a short tramway made thence to the Murray at Goolwa, distant 7 miles. He, therefore, procured the offer of a bonus to the man who should take the first steamer up the stream as far as the Darling Junction, and he himself accompanied Captain Cadell to Echuca, 1,300 miles, in the "Lady Augusta."

Prior to Captain Cadell's voyage up the Murray in the "Lady Augusta," Mr. William Randall had built a small steamer at Mannum, on the Murray, about 80 miles above Goolwa, and had steamed up the Murray, and for some distance along the Darling, but his craft did not fulfil the conditions which would have entitled him to the reward.

In his Murray River projects, the Governor was undoubtedly too sanguine, not sufficiently taking into account the circumstance that the water supply of the Murray was variable, and that the eastern colonies also might have views with regard to the exploitation of any possible traffic. The tramway proposed by him was, however, constructed, and a sum of £20,000 was spent in constructing a breakwater at Port Elliott. "He believed and wrote," says one of his critics, "that it would become the New Orleans of the Australian Mississippi, but the money was literally thrown into the sea." The water-borne traffic of the Murray never greatly benefited South Australia, for when it began to grow to any appreciable volume it was promptly tapped by the Victorian railway system. Nevertheless, in the broad Australian sense, the passage of the first steamer up the river was a highly important historical event. Railways to the Port and northward were also initiated, but in consequence of the lack of experience in construction, these cost the colony enormous sums, in one instance 8 miles of line over level ground, with no engineering difficulties to surmount, and only one bridge to be built, involving an expenditure of nearly a quarter of a million sterling. It would appear, however, that a large proportion of the money spent was absorbed in providing work for the unemployed in order to relieve the labour market, the number of workmen employed on certain contracts in some cases being far in excess of actual requirements.

The Corporation of the City of Adelaide, whose powers had lain in abeyance for nine years, was revived by the Governor in 1851; but even before its revival a great alteration had been made in the political constitution of the colony. In 1851, the old system of Government by an Administrator and a nominee Council was abolished, and a legislature of one Chamber created in its place. This Chamber was composed of sixteen elected, and eight nominee members, four of the latter being Members of the Executive Council, and filling the chief official posts in the province. The other four were appointed by the Governor himself, subject to the approval of the Crown-though this was merely

a matter of form.

The new Chamber was designated the Legislative Council, and exercised control over the expenditure chargeable to the general revenue of the colony; whilst the Governor, as representative of the Crown, possessed the disposal of all the income derived from the sale or leasing of public lands. Earl Grey, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies, was the inventor of this form of Colonial Government. In 1853, the population of the colony numbered 79,000. In the Imperial Act, under which South Australia was founded, it was provided that the inhabitants might frame a Constitution for themselves as soon as they numbered 50,000 souls. In accordance with this provision, and about two years after the inauguration of Earl Grey's scheme of government, the Legislative Council passed a Constitution Bill, under which was to be called into existence, a Parliament, to consist of two Chambers-one elected by the people, and one to be nominated by the Governor as representative of the Crown, the members of the latter being appointed for life. The measure was sent to England for the Royal Assent; but the proposed new Constitution did not satisfy the colonists, and being strongly petitioned against, the Bill was referred back to the province.

Sir Henry Edward Fox Young was promoted to the Governorship of Tasmania, and left the colony to take up the duties of his new office on December 20th, 1854. Under his administration the land revenue increased from £32,935, in 1848, to £383,470, at the conclusion of his term of office. The general revenue increased for the same period from £82,911 to £595,356. The population, in 1848, was 38,666 persons; since that date immigration had added to the muster roll of the colony no fewer than 93,140, while the increase of births over deaths for the same period was 7,897; yet, so great had been the exodus during the gold-fever years, that the total population at the time of Governor Young's departure was only 92,545; many people, in fact, simply used South Australia as a free-passage stepping-stone to the Victorian gold-fields.

Sir Henry's successor did not arrive in the colony for six months, the Government being administered in the interim by the Hon. B. T. Finniss, who had, up to that time, been Colonial Secretary.

Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell assumed the reins of Government on the 8th June, 1855, and surrendered them on the 4th March, 1862; thus serving the longest term of all South Australia's Governors, administering the affairs of the province for a period only three months short of seven years. On his arrival the Governor found the province in the throes of military enthusiasm. The outbreak of the Crimean War, in 1854, had aroused fears of a Russian descent on Australia, and, in common with some of the sister colonies, South Australia made hurried preparations for such a contingency. A strong regiment of foot was enrolled, with a small force of cavalry, and three batteries of artillery, but the arms and equipment were extremely inadequate, while the defences of the port and shipping were almost entirely neglected.

With the conclusion of peace, however, between Russia and the belligerent powers, this sudden accession of military ardour rapidly evaporated.

The colony's affairs were now in a flourishing condition. satisfactory revenue, and politically the only problem before it was the framing of a popular Constitution. After the general election, to ascertain the wishes of the colonists on this important subject, the estimates framed by the Governor were forwarded to the Legislative Council; but instead of being discussed in the ordinary manner, they were referred to a Select Committee composed of six elected members and one nominee. The Committee protracted its sittings for several months while it criticised the Governor's policy, the public service being carried on in the meantime by credit votes. When the Committee dispatched an address to the Governor requesting him to send revised Estimates to the Legislative Council, he replied in a trenchant and masterly manner, and thereby won over to his views the great bulk of the colonists.

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The Constitution Act was introduced into the Legislative Council, where it was discussed and finally adopted, whilst the dispute was still proceeding between the Select Committee and the Governor over the Estimates. The Bill was passed in the last session of the old Legislative Council of 1855-6, and, receiving the Royal Assent, was in due course returned unaltered to the colony and proclaimed on the 24th October, 1856. The Constitution was modelled somewhat on English lines, the Parliament consisting of two Chambers, a Legislative Council and a House of Assembly, both of them established on the elective principle. The Upper House was chosen on the basis of a property qualification of electors; the House of Assembly was chosen on the basis of manhood suffrage. The qualifications of an elector for the Legislative Council were a £50 freehold; a lease, registered, having three years to run, or a right of purchase of the annual value of £20, or the tenancy of a house of the clear annual value of £25. natural born or naturalised British subject, who had attained the age of 30, and had resided in the Colony for three years, was eligible as a member of the Upper House, which consisted of eighteen members, elected for twelve years. The Council was not subject to dissolution, but one-third of the members were to retire at the end of every third year, the order of retirement being decided by hallot after the first elections had taken place. The members of the Upper Chamber were elected by the whole province voting as one constituency. The House of Assembly consisted of thirty-six members, elected on a basis of manhood suffrage under a registration of six months duration. The Lower Chamber was liable to dissolution by the Governor, failing which event its life was triennial. Members of the Assembly were elected for specified districts into which the colony was divided, and the mode of election for both Houses was by ballot, the principle of which was adopted at the instance of "the father of the ballot " in Australia, the late F. S. Dutton.

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Sir Richard McDonnell had never been Governor of a colony with an independent Constitution; yet it was under his auspices that the work of constitutional reform was completed. The Act materially altered his position, and he was not easily reconciled to the changed status in which he found himself. Under the new Constitution he was no longer able to act on his own initiative, but was under obligation to act on the advice of his responsible Ministers. For a while the Governor considered it to be his business to give advice to his Ministers, and to prescribe the policy of the Government; but he soon accepted a more correct view of the situation, and contented himself with the mere formal concurrence in the drafted policy of his responsible advisers.

The first Ministry, which was a makeshift one, lasted for less than four months; the second, nine days; the third, twenty-nine days; and the fourth, two years and nine months. During the term of office of the last mentioned responsible Ministry, that admirable measure known as the Torrens Act, for simplifying the transfer of land, and for securing titles to it, was passed into law. It originated with Mr. (afterwards Sir) R. R. Torrens, whose experience, as Collector of Customs, in the transfer of shipping property, supplemented by the legal knowledge of European land legislation possessed by Dr. Hübbe, enabled him to frame a Bill so well suited to colonial conditions that the transfer of real property could be effected under its provisions with almost as much ease as the transfer of ordinary goods.

The railway connecting Adelaide with its port was completed and opened to traffic during the McDonnell régime, as well as the line from the capital to Gawler, and thence to Kapunda; and a beginning was made in constructing lines for telegraphic communication. Mr. Charles Todd constructed his first telegraph line from Adelaide to the Port, but the immediate revenue therefrom was infinitesimal, a rival line opened by Mr. McGeorge a few weeks previously having captured most of the business. The Government, however, intervened, and bought out Mr. McGeorge's rights for a sum of £80, and caused the line to be removed. The next extension of communication was to Gawler. In less than three years the system had extended as far as Melbourne. To Sir Richard McDonnell the establishment of the works that furnish an excellent supply of water to Adelaide and the suburbs is also attributable; and during his rule in 1861 the province gained an extension of territory (which has, however, never been of much real advantage) by the acquisition of a strip of country known as "No Man's Land," containing 80,000 square miles, and lying between the former boundary of the colony and that of Western Australia, and carrying the western boundary of the province west as far as the 129th meridian of east longitude. The mining industry received a great impetus by the discovery of rich deposits of copper in Yorke's Peninsula, and many mines were opened, of which the most famous were at Wallaroo and Moonta.

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