Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/50

 24 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY The A.cimects banking oi)erations as the Directors might deem expedient. The Directors also took into their considenition what trades woukl be required in the infant settlement, and chose and providetl tools for caqienters, brickmakers, limeburners, blacksmiths, boatbuilders, fishermen, and others. Thus the preliminary arrangements for settling were concluded, and all that remained to do was to appoint officers, civil and commercial, and to charter and despatch ships. A new system of colonisation was about to be tried, one based on logical premises, and, of course, upon Edward Gibbon Wakefield must fall the honor of chief architect. He enunciated the main principles adopted in the Act, and gave the projectors the weight of his influential personal advocacy and support. The colony was an experiment ; so that it engaged the watchful attention of many British thinkers, and consequently its projection was opposed inii)etuously by all those who hated the word. For a year or two, owing to surveying difficulties, Wakefield's land system was not given a fair trial, but for many subsequent years, until new conditions arose which demanded amendment, it worked with excellent results. "South Australia," wrote Mr. J. P. Stow in "South Australia" (1883). " became at once an agricultural country. . . . Within six years from the proclamation of the colony it exported wheat to other Australian provinces, and has continued to do so ever since." In comparison with Western Australia, which remained for half a century in jMtiful indigence, the Province was a brilliant success — and it was not to the quality of soil that the difference must be imputed. To the productions of Wakefield's penetrating mind many South Australians must ascribe their opulence and contentment. There were great historical characters among those who were earnest believers in the economist's views, and they gave their valuable influence in favor of having the Province of South Australia proclaimed. Wellington was the one commanding personality of the time ; while Grote. H. Lytton Bulwer, Rowland Hill, and several others already referred to, attained a fame that will not quickly be forgotten. Hut of the incessant workers in the local cause. Mr. Gouger, Colonel Torrens, and Mr. G. ¥. Angas are the principal. To them, in all probability, the Province owes its existence. Pirst, Gouger was jjersistent and restless ; then Torrens labored strenuously as well with the pen as in Parliament anil among his friends ; and lastly, Angas, with uncommon enterprise and foresight, stepped forth at a time when the outlook was most gloomy and disheartening, and initiated the series of events which finally launched the enterprise. The last placed his wealth in the balance, formulated the scheme which enabled the Commissioners to fulfil the demands of the Act, and anxiously toiled, even after the Province was proclaimed. That his remarkable faith and indomitable energy should bear abundant fruit was a just reward. In after years he invested a large amount of capital in South Australia, came here to reside, and here he died. 'I he Directors of the South Australian Company and the Board of Commissioners, when all the requirements of the Act had been obeyed, ra])idly arranged for the settlement of South Australia. A month after the formation of the Company, the Directors, with all the vigor of a commercial hou.se, had engaged a secretary and staff of clerks for the I