Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/186

 I60 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY The Railway-Builders Mr. John Colton— now Sir John Colton — Mr. Boucaut's ex-colleague, was the new Premier. Much of his predecessor's policy was borrowed, new railways were authorised, and loans aggregating nearly ^3,000,000 were voted, a useful session closing on November 17. This practically concluded the political affairs in the administration of Governor Musgrave. On January 27. 1877, he left South Australia to become Governor of Jamaica. He had been face to face with several difficult situations during the ministerial crises, and amid them all deported himself with dignity and judgment. At a farewell Parliamentary dinner, he characterised ministerial instability as " a great blemish in Australian political systems." From Jamaica Sir Anthony Musgrave, who was knighted in 1875, was transferred to Queensland, where he died in October, 1888. The most important feature of the period 1868-77 was the vigorous execution of a bold public works policy. The roads throughout the country districts were improved, money was spent in harbor accommodation, telegraph extension was provided for, and new railways were built. In earlier years the railway from Adelaide to Gawler had been extended to the Burra, and a tramline was laid from Strathalbyn to Middleton, a station on the Goolwa-Port Victor line. A tramline was also built from Port Wakefield to Hoyleton, and subsequently extended. Then railways were constructed between Port Pirie and Gladstone, Port Wakefield and Kadina, Kingston tUid Narracoorte, and Adelaide and Glenelg ; a short line was built from Port Broughton to the agricultural country in the neighborhood. Some 302 miles of railway were open to traffic at the termination of Sir Anthony Musgrave's administration, and Parliament had sanctioned the construction of 380 miles in addition. The following were included in the measures introduced first by Mr. Boucaut, and then by Mr. Colton: — Port Augusta to Government Gums, 199 miles; Gladstone to Jamestown, 20 miles ; Rivoli Bay to Mount Gambier, 57 miles ; Kadina to Barunga Gap, t,;^ miles ; Kapunda to North-West Bend of the Murray, 56 miles ; and Burra to Hallett, 18 miles. For some years railway building was the dominant phase of local development. It may be said to have attracted thousands of men to the Province, and in the large expenditure of loan moneys which it necessitated to have given a fictitious value to real estate and products. .South Australians, judging from the prominence given to the subject, were at this time a people of railway-builders. A work, which partook of a national character, was the construction of an overland telegraph line to Port Darwin. The attemj)ts to .settle a colony in the Northern Territory were renewed. Captain Cadell, after visiting the north coast, .supplied the Goveriunent with a glowing account of its re.sources. Under land regulations specially applying to that area, English and Australian capitalists had purchased the right to take up certain lands, and the Government was therefore compelled either to establish a settlement or to return the money to the purcha.ser.s. In 1869, Mr. Goyder was .sent to make the necessary surveys, and he used Port Darwin as a base of operations, choosing Palmerston, on its shores, as the prospective capital. Mr. Goyder performed the task allotted to him with characteristic energy and dispatch, and the survey of the chief town and three smaller