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 At the same time that Colonel Gawler was appointed governor he was also made resident commissioner—vice Mr. Fisher, dismissed—and thus united in his own person all the administrative powers of the colony.

In order to obtain money to commence operations, before the colony had been surveyed or even settled, the commissioners issued "preliminary orders," as a bonus to the first purchasers and colonists, at £72 12s. each, which entitled the purchaser to select, in a rotation settled by lottery, 120 acres of country land, and one acre in the intended capital of the intended colony. This capital city, before discovery or survey, was settled by the commissioners to consist of 1,200 acres, or nearly nine square miles—a space sufficient to accommodate the population of Westminster. As soon as the capital, Adelaide, had been selected and mapped, the holders of preliminary orders, forming the first body of colonists, selected their sections, and the whole surplus was put up for auction to the colonists, "as a reward for their enterprise," and sold at an average rate of £2 per acre. Thus, more than ten times the space that has ever been required was turned into and perpetually dedicated to building land. From that moment the great object of the first colonists became to puff, magnify, and sell to future colonists their building land in Adelaide. No crop was so profitable as land left in a state of nature, but called and sold for a street.

The first operation having been performed, by which the future site of what was intended to be a great city had been transferred into the hands of a few persons, chiefly consisting of the friends of the commissioners and the officials of the South Australian Company, the next was to sell as much land as possible in England, by giving English purchasers a decided advantage over those who, nevertheless intending to emigrate, declined to buy a pig in a poke.

Accordingly land orders were issued at 80 each, which entitled the holder to select eighty acres of country land in the order dictated by the date of payment. Thus, when any particularly desirable plot of land was brought into the market, a speculation arose to discover and purchase the oldest "order" in the colony. A class of Adelaide brokers