Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/142

 ,,6 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY The Legislators The original members of the Legislative Council under responsible government were :— G. F. Angas, H. Ayers, C. H. Bagot, J. Baker, S. Davenport, C. Davies, C. G. Everard. J. H. Fisher, A. Forster, A. H. Freeling, E. C. Gwynne, G. Hall, T. S. O'Halloran, J. Morphett, A. Scott, W. Scott, E. Stirling, and W. Younghusband. The original members of the House of Assembly were : — For City of Adelaide~R. R. Torrens, R. D. Hanson, F. S. Dutton, B. T. Finniss, J. B. Neales, W. H. Burford ; Port Adelaide— J. Hart, J. B. Hughes ; West Torrens— L. Scammell, J. W. Cole ; Yatala —J. Harvey, C. S. Hare; Gumeracha — A. Blyth, A. Hay; East Torrens— G. M. Waterhouse, C. Bonney; The Sturt— T. Reynolds, J. Hallett ; Noarlunga— T. Young, H. Mildred; Mount Barker— F. E. H. W. Krichauff, J. Dunn; Onkaparinga— W. Milne, W. B. Dawes; Encounter Bay^B. H. Babbage, A. F. Lindsay ; Barossa — W. Duffield, H. Dean ; The Murray — D. Wark ; Light — J. T. Bagot, C. Smedley ; Victoria — R. R. Leake; Burra and Clare— G. S. Kingston, M. Marks, E. J. Peake ; and Flinders— M. MacDermott. The new Parliament assembled on April 22, about 1,000 persons congregating on North Terrace to watch the arrival of the Governor and the members. Mr. J. H. Fisher WAS cho.sen President of the Council, and Mr. G. S. Kingston, first Deputy-Surveyor General and a founder of Adelaide, was elected Speaker of the Assembly. The new members entered upon their task with enthusiasm, and the vitality among them was quickly evidenced in rapid changes of Government, and in the influence and weight which some of their earliest measures had over the progress of the Province. Commenting on the establishment of responsible government the London Times wrote : — " It must be confessed that it is rather an odd position for a new community of rising tradesmen, farmers, cattle breeders, builders, mechanics, with a sprinkling of doctors and attorneys, to find that it is suddenly called upon to find Prime Ministers, Cabinets, a Ministerial side, an Opposition side, and all the apparatus of a Parliamentary Government — to awake one fine morning and discover that this is no longer a colony, but a nation, saddled with all the rules and traditions of the political life of the mother country." It is now time to turn to affairs relating specially to Adelaide and its neighborhood. This being the capital, the changes of Government influenced to a particular degree the dignity of the city. The progress made throughout the Province in mineral, agricultural, and pastoral pursuits very considerably affected the commercial centre. Large buildings arose, and the city, by increase of population and by reason of the greater wealth of the community and productiveness of the country, gained a more substantial appearance. The " newness " which was its characteristic in former years was slowly disappearing, and it began to have a settled, permanent look. E!ach large extension of wealth in the country districts was eventually reflected in the capital, so that Adelaide was by this time becoming pretentious, and its inhabitants more commercially solid. While Governor Young helped the Province to obtain representative, and then responsible government, he did not pass over the claims of the city to local government. Unlike his two immediate predecessors, he was willing to devote substantial sums of money