Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/106

 8o ADELAIDE AND VICINITY The citizens unaiithorisccl. altlK)iij,'h that policy was soon afterwards adopted by British legislation. Mr. H. T. iMiiiiiss, in his "Constitutional History of South Australia," wrote of Governor Gawler's administration that " whether he was right or wrong, it may be asserted that the colonists of that |)eriod, and of the present, owe him a debt of gratitude for saving the Colony from anarchy, and for the improvements in its condition which have resulted from an e.xpenditure. not wastefully incurred, but spread amongst the community in the shape of wages for useful purposes. Governor Gawler was impelled by circumstances to act as he did." On June 18. 1841, Colonel Gawler left South Australia. So attached had the people become to him that he was beset with addresses and testimonials, and upon his departure he " left behind him a memory which was treasured by many, even of those who had suflfered most from the policy he had pursued." In a speech addressed to a sorrowing audience in Adelaide, on the eve of his departure, he expressed pain and regret at leaving so many accounts unpaid, "but," he added, "I have the fullest confidence that not one account will remain unpaid, because such accounts are drawn on my authorities." Although a Royal Commission absolved him from blame, his career was blighted. In a letter to Mr. G. F. Angas, in 1846, he describes an economic principle which is worthy of attention. After asserting that he " laid, in the face of immense difficulties, the foundation of the finest Colony, in proportion to its duration, that has appeared in modern times," he added that it was " one of the cheapest, if not the very cheapest, of the distant colonies that England has had." " A parent State," he continued, " ought to pay for her colonies as a jiarent does for his children, or as States do themselves for their lines of battle-ships ; it is a beggarly spirit of penury alone which can lead them to fume and grumble as they have done about South Australia." Mr. E. G. Wakefield, also a misunderstood man, said : — " I cannot imagine the po.ssibility of founding a colony without obtaining money for its first expenses from some other source than itself. At first it has no existence at all, and one might as well propo.se to manufacture cotton goods without the outlay for the building, machinery, and the raw materials, etc." Had the foundation of the Province depended on the British Exchequer, it would have fared badly. .So far, at least, as South Australia is concerned, its possession and value to England is more creditable to the enterprising instincts of her colonising people than to the intelligence and foresight of her statesmen. The subsequent life of Crflonel Gawler was dreary. He never forgot the callous and somewhat discreditable manner of his summary dismissal from office. He appealed to the British Government in vain, and exercised the right of petition to Her Majesty — a right that was merely acknowledged. He was absolutely refused some honorary title, and .so, .says a writer in the Austj'alian Mail (June 15, 1869), "the grand old soldier had but little to wrap himself in but his martial cloak and a conscience void of offence." He died at .Southsea, England, on May 7, 1869, aged 'J2, years. Captain George Grey, since better known as Sir George Grey of New Zealand, had an arduous and unwelcome task to grapple with. He was at this time an enthusiastic