Page:The Irish in Australia.djvu/209

 CHAPTER X.

FOUR OF THE FAMILY.

much of what has been said in previous chapters, concerning the progress of colonisation in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, and the concurrent advance of the Irish citizens of these states, applies with equal force and truth to the other four colonies in the Australasian dominion, that, to avoid recapitulation, it will be most convenient to place South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand under a general heading, and regard them as forming an harmonious family group at the antipodes. The colony of South Australia was founded almost simultaneously with Victoria, but in a far different manner. In 1836 an English enthusiast, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, propounded a new and fantastical scheme of colonisation, which, as is usually the case, attracted many by its novelty