Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/204

 ,78 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY The jubUee land to which the shepherd had the best right. While tillage in the unsuitable region increased, there was a slight decline in the older agricultural areas. Hy the year 1889 there was not an agricultural district of any pretension or reliability that was not served by a railway. ' The Houcaut policy, while it eventually drained from the Province large sums of money to pay the interest on loans, and while it was not always followed in its original integrity, resulted in a rapid increase of population and of trade, and in an enormous rise in the value of property. Of course, there was a land boom, during which building operations in Adelaide were conducted in a manner suggestive of 1840. The population jumped from 237,090 in 1876, to about 300,000 in 1882 ; the area under cultivation from 1. 514.916 acres to 2.623,195 acres; and the revenue from ^1,331,925 (1876-7) to ;/;"2, 242,085 (1881-2). In Adelaide, business sites rose 120 per cent, in value, and good residence sites 100 per cent. New townships were laid out on the Adelaide Plains and on the seaboard, and syndicates purchased land here and there, with the idea of cutting it up into residence lots. Henley Beach and the Grange came into existence, and the tints of the bubble were obser'ed with all the old eagerness. By 1882-3 h<id come the re-action and the vain regrets. The public works policy was to a large extent the instigator of this boom, but the increase of production and export had some influence. Up to 1880 the wheat yields were large, and in that year the export of breadstuffs amounted to ^^2, 469, 720. Poor returns followed, and in 1882 there was a diminution in the export of nearly a million pounds. In 1880, the total exports amounted to ^^5, 574,405, but in 1882, it was /^4, 187.840. Thenceforth the returns varied with the seasons; there were bad years and there were good. In 1889, the stock in the Province was represented by 6,386,617 sheep, 324,412 cattle, and 170,515 horses. The export of produce of the Province amounted to ^3,694.692, of which wool supplied ^1,541,972, breadstuffs, ^957,585, and copper, ^295,288. The season was not a good one. The population in December, 1889, was 324,484. In the interval between these dates, there were happy and also bitter experiences. Loan money and substantial returns for wheat and wool effected a great difference in the condition of the people, but the general and legitimate prosperity was affected by occasional droughts in the northern districts. After the .severe drought of 1882, there was an improvement in the harvest, but in the city the aftermath of the boom was being felt. The Insolvent Courts were busy, and the newspapers were constantly announcing assignments. The revenue returns decreased quarter by quarter, and the public deficit grew rajiidly. The price of wool went down so low that it was almost impossible to make pastoral pursuits pay. Then came a change. The discovery of silver in the Barrier Ranges was a matter of supreme importance to South Australia because of its geograjihical i)osition, and a railway line was projected to the argentiferous area. Wool rose unexpectedly in value, and the exploiting of a goldfield at Teetulpa gave a temporary