Page:The founding of South Australia.djvu/143

 Parliamentary members of the provisional committee, doing yeoman's service, and it passed the third reading without any serious hindrance. In the House of Lords the Bill was introduced by the Marquis of Normanby, and was so warmly supported by the Duke of Wellington that the opposition, which at one time threatened to be dangerous, was overcome. He expressed himself as deeply interested in this new experiment in colonisation, and desired that it might have a fair trial. He also recommended that Colonel Light, his companion in arms, should be the first surveyor-general of the new colony. On the 15th of August, 1834, the last day of the session, the Bill received the royal assent."

The leading features of the Act (4 & 5 Will. IV., cap. 95) have been given in the preceding chapters of this work, and need not be repeated here; but it will be well to call attention to one part of the Act which, but for the timely intervention of one member of the Board of Commissioners, might have rendered the whole measure inoperative. It was this: the concluding clause of the Act restrained the Commissioners from entering upon the exercise of their general powers until they had invested £20,000 in Exchequer Bills, and until £35,000 worth of land had been purchased.

With this brief introduction, we may now resume our quotations from Mr. Gouger's Journal.