Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/151

 CHAPTER VIII THE PRODUCERS 1857-68 Condition of Province at inauguration of Responsible Government — Depression, Working Classes, and Immigration — Agricultural, Pastoral, and Mineral Expansion — Discovery of Wallaroo and Rloonta Mines — Railways and Telegraphs- First Parliament — A " Deadlock "^ — R. D. Hanson — Second Parliament — Departure of Governor MacDonnell and Arrival of Governor Daly — Volunteers — Instability of Parlies — The Torrens Act — Quarrel with a Judge — Immigration — Squatters — Death of Governor Daly — The City — Description of Adelaide in 1861 — Civic Annals — New IMunicipal Act — Town Hall, Water Supply, Gas, and the Torrens — Exploration — Babbage, Warburton, Goyder, Hack, and Gregory — ^Attempts of Stuart to cross Continent^Reaches North Coast — Burke and Wills— IMcKinley and Warburton — Attempt to Colonise Northern Territory I O U T H AUSTRALIA very appropriately obtained responsible government —her legal majority- in her twenty-first year. In 1857, when she was permitted to manage her own estate, the condition of her patrimony was as agreeable as she could wish. The population was set down at 109,917 persons ; the land alienated at 1,557,740 acres ; the land cultivated at 235,965 acres; the stock owned at 2,075,805 sheep, 310,400 cattle, and 26,220 horses ; the annual value of imports at ^1,623,052, and of exports ^1,744,184; the number of Hourmills at 70 ; manufactories, 226 ; post-offices, i 10 ; letters passing through post-office 934,550, and newspapers 849,946 ; day-schools 167, scholars 7,480 ; Sunday-schools 192, scholars 10,576 ; and places of worship 300, with accommodation for 50,000 persons. While in the years 1842-8 the Province actually began to produce, it was not until the period under review that any very pronounced expansion took place. Partly by the help of the Victorian goldfields, the producers now multiplied, and the returns from the wheat lands and sheep stations became really substantial. This, indeed, is the dominant feature in the local history of 1857-68, although in later years still greater comparative developments have to be chronicled. I2S