Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/103

 The Citizens ADELAIIDE AND VICINITY -j'] suburbs, and gala days show only one side of the picture. Tht; other side presented a dull tint that was distressing to the eye. While Adelaide residents were being invested with the decorous vesture of citizenship, the climax to the forced prosperity was coming on. Up to a certain limit. Governor Gawler's public works policy was advantageous, but it was too risky to be pursued very far. To the sorrow and ruin of many colonists, he was stopped suddenly in his career of expenditure. After their first passive concurrence with his administrative actions, the Colonising Commissioners began to evince symptoms of unrest and doubt. They became curious, and then nervous. To satisfy them, the Governor appointed, in January, 1840, a Board of Audit, whose members were three colonists separate from the Administration, to act with the Auditor-General. The distance of the determining heads from the Province was causing delay at a time when rapid decision was imperative, and therefore Governor Gawler was forced to take steps which were not likely to meet with the approval of the Colonising Commissioners or the Secretary for the Colonies. Even at this early date. South Australia was experiencing the inconvenience of being governed by men thousands of miles away that was common to all the colonies before they obtained representative or responsible government. The colonists, appreciating this, memorialised the Secretary for the Colonies in April to have the Executive or Legislative Council enlarged so as to admit of a certain number of non-official members being nominated, as in Western Australia. There was no immediate outcome, and, to the surprise of South Australians, news arrived in June that the Colonising Commissioners had been disbanded, and that the Colonial Land and Emigration Board had been substituted. The new Board consisted of three members, presided over by the worthy Colonel Torrens, the chairman of the old Board. This alteration in the English administrators of the Province seemed to make no immediate difference to colonists ; but members of the new Board were merely getting a hold on their duties, and in due time the result was seen. At the end of 1840 the land sales had reached 299,072 acres, producing .1^277,805. Immigrants continued to pour in, but there were few capitalists among them, and Governor Gawler had to employ the greater number. Yet wages were high, the price of food was high, rents were high ; and speculators were busy. The Governor was getting more entangled, but did not despair of pulling the Province out of its troubles. He rather hoped that the day of legitimate progress would soon arrive, but the harbingers of storm appeared first ; and while he was on a visit to Cape Jervis and Kangaroo Island, in P'ebruary, 1841, information reached Adelaide that some of the bills drawn by the Governor on the Commissioners had been returned dishonored. He hastened back to the city and .summoned his Council, which recommended, by resolution, that the practice of drawing upon the Commissioners should be continued, with " the precautionary addition of a reference, in case of need, to the Lords of Her Majesty's Treasury." It was hoped that if the new Commissioners persisted, the Imperial Government, recognising the state of the Province, would come to the rescue. In the meantime, the position of the