In 1856, an engineer named B. H. Babbage, who had been employed on the City and Port Railway, and who professed to have considerable geological knowledge, was sent north to search for gold. He failed to find the coveted indications, but the three expeditions he conducted, and that of Warburton, who was sent out to recall him, added largely to the general stock of accurate information. In the year following Babbage's first expedition, Deputy-Surveyor-General G. W. Goyder was instructed to examine and survey the country which had been discovered by Babbage, Warburton, Swinden, and others, and returned with a glowing description of large fresh-water lakes, tall perpendicular cliffs, and so forth. The Surveyor-General, Captain Freeling, R.E., was at once sent to the scene of the alleged discoveries, but found nothing to justify his deputy's rhapsodical descriptions. It was very plain that Mr. Goyder had either been deceived by the mirage or misled by a rainy season. In June, 1858, John McDouall Stuart, who had been draughtsman with the expedition of Captain Sturt to Central Australia, began a series of explorations that eventually solved the problem of the interior, and culminated in the crossing of the Continent from south to north. He first made repeated examinations of the country between Lake Torrens and Lake Eyre, fixing a new base for northern exploration and discovering a more practicable route. Accompanied by a single white companion and a native, he penetrated so far as 28.20 south latitude, and 134.10 east longitude. In 1860 Stuart again set out, with the intention of crossing the Continent, and had penetrated the interior beyond Mount Denison (about as far north as 21 35 south latitude), discovering and naming Central Mount Stuart en route; but exhaustion, scurvy, general sickness, rapid decrease of provisions, hostility of the blacks, and above all, want of water, compelled him to beat a retreat for the settled districts, which he reached after suffering the greatest privations. On his return to Adelaide, the Government organised a fresh expedition and gave Stuart the command. With twelve men and forty-nine horses, he left Chambers' Creek Station on New Year's Day, 1861; but waterless desert and impenetrable scrub stayed the advance of his water-famished and exhausted party when within only 4 degrees of the northern coast, and he was again obliged to return. Once more he was sent north, and that within a month of his arrival in Adelaide. There was keen rivalry between South Australia and Victoria as to which would first reach the northern coast. Burke and Wills had already started, with the advantage of having a shorter route to traverse; but John McDouall Stuart had the knowledge, and experience won from defeat as well as from signal victory. The party left the settled districts early in 1862. On July 24th, of the same year, Mr. J. W. Thring, the third officer, riding somewhat in advance of the party, cried out, "The Sea!" Stuart's diary thus tells the story :-"The beach is covered with a soft blue mud. It being ebb-tide, I could see for some distance, and found it would be impossible for me to take the horses along it. I therefore kept them where I had halted them, and allowed half the party to come

to the beach and gratify themselves with a sight of the sea, whilst the other half remained to watch the horses until their return. I dipped my feet and washed my face and hands in the sea, as I promised the late Governor, Sir Richard McDonnell, I would do if I reached it. After all the party had spent some time on the beach, at which they were much pleased and gratified, they collected a few shells. I returned to the valley where I had my initials cut on a large tree (J.M.D.S.), as I intended putting my flag up at the mouth of the Adelaide." The explorers were royally received on their return to Adelaide. Stuart was given a grant of 1,000 square miles of grazing country and in all about £3,000 in cash. But he died in less than seven years. Crippled, half blind, and utterly broken down, he could struggle forward while work remained to be done, but the numberless privations he had suffered had made a fatal drain on his energy, and he rapidly sank when the battle was over.

;

When Governor McDonnell left the province, the population had increased to 126,830 from 92,545 in 1854. The revenue had expanded from £453,641, in 1855, to £558,587; the area of land under cultivation in 1853 was 129,692 acres, in 1862 it had grown to 320,160 acres the number of sheep depastured in the two years named were respectively, 1,768,724 and 3,431,000. In 1854 the imports were valued at £2,147,107; in 1862 their value had decreased to £1,820,656 ; whilst in the same period the exports had grown from £1,322,822 to £2,145,796. Sir Richard McDonnell was succeeded in the Government by Sir Dominick Daly, without any interregnum of administration, the change being made on 4th March, 1862. Prior to his arrival in South Australia the new Governor had filled a similar position at Prince Edward's Island.

The first years of Sir Dominick's administration were troubled by the judicial imbroglio brought about by the persistence of Mr. Justice Boothby in regarding himself as the only lawfully appointed judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia. His appointment had been made by letters patent under the great seal of the province by Sir H. E. F. Young, and the exceptional character of the method in which he had received his office caused the judge to scout the claims of his colleagues and question the legality of their acts. Voluminous correspondence passed between the Governor, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and Mr. Justice Boothby himself, and the quarrel seemed to be interminable. The whole question was so intermixed with constitutional difficulties that no finality could be arrived at. Vain efforts were made to enforce Judge Boothby's retirement, and he was ultimately proceeded against under an Act of George III, which, it was considered, would meet his peculiar case. However, his death which took place a few months after proceedings were initiated against him, brought this unpleasant incident to a close.

On the 6th July, 1863, the Northern Territory, or Alexandra Land as it was then called, until that time a part of the colony of New South

Wales was, by Royal Letters Patent, annexed to the province of South Australia, as a reward for the enterprise shown in the promotion of the exploring expeditions of Stuart, McKinlay, and others. It was thereupon resolved to found a settlement in this newly acquired domain, and extensive sales of land were immediately held. The first expedition, however, became disorganised, years rolled by while preliminaries were being settled, and the holders of land-orders clamoured for the refund of their payments. At this juncture Mr. Goyder was sent north, with a strong staff of surveyors, to lay out the settlement. He at once selected Port Darwin as the site of a capital, and there formed the ground-plan of the town of Palmerston. The further development of the interior was facilitated by Sir Thomas Elder's importation in 1862, of a breeding herd of 117 camels. It may here be remarked that the first camel introduced into South Australia had been used by the ill-fated Horrocks on his exploring expedition in 1846.

Towards the end of the year 1867, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, in command of the "Galatea," paid a state visit to South Australia, and was entertained by the Governor. The royal visitor was received with the most enthusiastic demonstrations of loyalty, and, during his stay in Adelaide, performed the ceremony of laying the foundation-stones of the General Post Office and of the Wesleyan College which bears his name. Five months after the Prince's visit, the Governor, who for some time had been in feeble health, was attacked by a serious illness, and died on the 19th February, 1868. He was buried with military honors, no greater public demonstration ever having been witnessed in the colony.

During Governor Daly's rule, John McKinlay, the explorer, who had already distinguished himself by heading an expedition from Adelaide to Port Denison in Queensland in search of the remains of Burke and Wills, made a notable and perilous exploration of the Northern Territory, when the settlement formed there was in danger of total collapse. Part of the journey was performed in a punt made of saplings, over which the hides of slain horses had been stretched after the meat had been jerked for food. Both alligators and sharks, attracted by the smell of the raw hides, followed, and time after time nearly swamped the frail craft; but after days of danger and hardship the party safely made the entrance to Beatrice Bay. An almost equally perilous voyage was that undertaken by Mr. J. P. Slow in the "Forlorn Hope" from the settlement to Champion Bay, Western Australia-a voyage that added considerably to the knowledge of the country in the neighbourhood of the north-west coast.

On the decease of Sir Dominick Daly, the government was administered by Lieutenant-Colonel F. G. Hamley, of the 50th Regiment, the senior military officer on active service in the Colony, and he held the post of administrator until the arrival, twelve months afterwards, of the Rt. Hon. Sir James Fergusson, Bart. The new Governor took up the reins of office on the 15th February, 1869, and left the Colony for

the Governorship of New Zealand on the 18th April, 1873. During Colonel Hamley's administration, important changes took place in regard to the manner of disposing of the waste lands of the Crown. Prior to this, land had been sold at auction-a system which had created a class of persons known as "land sharks," who attended all Government land sales, bid for and bought all they could secure, and kept it in the hope of receiving speculative prices from the people. who required the land for genuine settlement. Settlement was restricted also by the formation of land monopolies favoured largely by the auction method of disposal. By the introduction of a new Land Bill, called Strangway's Act," an attempt was made to remedy these abuses. Land was sold on credit, the full amount of purchase money being payable within four years from the date of the sale. The limit of selection was 640 acres. New evils, however, arose from the operations of the new Act-the common evils of all Australian land systems, the evasion of the residential provisions and "dummying"-but the general effects of the Act were distinctly beneficial.

An extension of the Northern railway to Burra, 100 miles north of Adelaide, took place during this period, and other schemes for improved internal communication were canvassed, but the greatest achievement under the Fergusson régime was the construction of the transcontinental telegraph line which connected Adelaide with Port Darwin, and consequently with London. The entire distance from the South Australian capital to the northern port is 1,975 miles, and for hundreds of miles at a stretch the interior was without a solitary white inhabitant. Large areas were absolutely destitute of timber, and no less than 19,000 iron telegraph poles had to be used. The line was begun simultaneously at each end, and in less than two years the wires had met, and were connected near the centre of the continent.

Sir James Fergusson had identified himself with all schemes for the advancement of agriculture, and took a most substantial and generous part in useful popular movements, but his claims to estimation as a farseeing statesman rest rather on his organisation of a bold public works policy, the carrying out of which has helped very largely to develop the productiveness and increase the wealth and prosperity of the province. After his departure Chief Justice the Hon. Sir R. D. Hanson administered the affairs of the colony till the arrival of Mr. (afterwards Sir) Anthony Musgrave, who assumed the reins of office on the 9th June, 1873.

Sir Anthony Musgrave's administration lasted till the 29th January, 1877, a term of three and a half years, during which period there was much political conflict and unrest. At the close of the session of 1874, Mr. James Penn Boucaut, one of the ablest lawyers and foremost politicians of the colony, emerged from the political conflict to power as Premier of a Ministry with a "broad and comprehensive" policy to place before the country. The dominant principle was the development of national resources on a regular plan, and at a cost of £3,000,000,

H

which Mr. Boucaut proposed to raise as a loan, the interest being provided for by the imposition of increased taxation in the form of stamp taxes and probate and succession duties. Twice the taxation proposals passed the Assembly, and twice were they rejected by the Council, and Mr. Boucaut refused to go on with his public works. His Ministry was removed by a non-confidence vote, and the Hon. John Colton was sent for. This gentleman formed a new Cabinet, and adopted the whole of the Boucaut policy except its proposed taxation. The sum of £3,000,000 was raised on loan, and various new railways were projected, all of which have since been constructed; the Probate and Succession Duties were adopted and became law, but the Stamp Act which had been contemplated was not proceeded with. The Boucaut policy of internal expansion and public works construction was for a series of years the chief political subject, and, indeed, long after Mr. Boucaut, through his having accepted a seat on the judicial bench, had ceased to have any direct connection with it.

Pending the arrival of Sir Anthony Musgrave's successor, Sir William Wellington Cairns, K.C.M.G., the Government was administered by Chief Justice Samuel James Way, who has often filled the same office. Sir W. W. Cairns, who was transferred from Queensland, remained in the colony less than eight weeks, and left behind him hardly a trace of his visit. The only public functions he performed during his stay in the province were the opening of the Victoria Bridge on 24th April, 1877, and his attendance at the inauguration of the Senate of the Adelaide University and the enrolment of its members. He resigned his office on the 17th May following, and the Chief Justice again became Administrator, and remained so for nearly five months. During the administration of the Hon. S. J. Way (July, 1877) the overland telegraph line to Western Australia was completed as far as Eucla, a small port about 160 miles west of the head of the Great Australian Bight.

Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois, C.B., K.C.M.G., arrived in Adelaide on the 2nd October, 1877, and remained in office till the 17th November, 1882. Sir William Jervois held the rank of Colonel in the Royal Engineers, and was Governor of the Straits Settlement when he was appointed to South Australia. He subsequently attained the rank of Lieutenant-General. Besides having distinguished himself as an officer, he was esteemed one of the greatest authorities on fortifications among European experts. He had had many and varied experiences in England, at the Cape, and in India, and afterwards filled the position of Governor of New Zealand.

Almost immediately after the new Governor's arrival, the overland telegraph line from Adelaide to Perth, connecting West Australia with the telegraphic systems of the other colonies and of the world, was completed. It follows the coastline for the most part along Eyre's track over 979 miles of that difficult country first traversed by the foot of white men hardly forty years before, and it joins the South Australian