Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/63

 The Founders ADELAIDE AND VICINITY at floodtime this place was liable to inundation, he reverted to his. original choice. Eventually the Governor reluctantly conceded the point to the Surveyor-General on the understanding that a second town should be laid out at the harbor. The latter assented, chose as the town site for the port a position a litde distance away from the present centre of Port Adelaide, and set his subordinates to work. Governor Hindmarsh decided to name the plains stretching from the camp in Holdfast Bay the Glenelg Plains, after Lord Glenelg. It had previously been determined, in obedience to the wish of King William IV., to confer the name of Adklaiuk on the capital city in honor of the royal consort. As a testimony to the assistance which the Iron Duke rendered during the passage of the South Australian Act through the House of Lords, Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield desired that the capital of South Australia should be named Wellington. His wishes were not granted, but the name was subsequently given to a ■ prominent New Zealand centre. Though he did not discontinue his annoying opposition to Colonel Light's work, Governor Hindmarsh seems to have been secretly enamored with the attractions and certain of the recommendations of Adelaide. In a letter written from the Buffalo on January 5, 1837, to Mr. G. F. Angas, he says: — "Adelaide is to be on the bank of a beautiful stream, with thousands of acres of the richest land I ever saw. Altogether, a more beautiful spot can hardly be imagined." With this opinion many travellers have since agreed. Mr. Robert Gouger, in his work, "South Australia in 1837," published in 1838, puts the case of Colonel Light in a judicial manner : — " In determining where to fix the chief town. Colonel Light had to consider whether it was more desirable to place it away from the harbor, but on a stream of fresh water, or at the harbor, but where all the fresh water the inhabitants required would have to be brought from a distance. He decided in favor of the first of these, and for many reasons he will be thanked for it by posterity." A comparison between the Port Adelaide and the Adelaide of to-day will prove to what extent the gallant colonel deserves our thanks. Commemoration Day at Glenelg, Looking Nohih