CAPTAIN GREY.

RESUMING our history, we return to the regime introduced by Governor Grey of which uncompromising retrenchment was the marked feature. It intensified the severity of the crisis for which the action of the Home Commissioners was partly responsible. Things grew worse and worse. Captain Grey was an autocrat, and ruled despotically. Not content with pursuing the methods adopted by his predecessor for getting the people out into the country, he seemed to be determined to make the city as unattractive as possible. A municipal council had been elected before the new governor arrived, but it interfered with his independent action, and he could not work with it. Its members ventured to criticise his proceedings, and he promptly resented what he considered to be their presumption. When his relations with the council grew more strained, he questioned the legality of its acts, disregarded its suggestions, and finally the corporation, which it is believed was the first ever established in the British colonies, became defunct.

As the governor wielded what was practically supreme power, he was able to induce the Executive to pass a number of taxation Acts for the purpose of increasing the revenue. The enlarged indebtedness of the colony was alleged to be proof that such measures were absolutely necessary, but augmented taxation is always unwelcome, and by the people it was on that occasion strenuously opposed. It was declared that Captain Grey’s policy was having the effect of still further deepening the commercial depression. At a public meeting of the citizens, it was denounced in unmeasured terms, and the City Council remonstrated against it; but the only effect of this resistance was to make him angry. He had formed his plans deliberately, and was absolutely inflexible in carrying them out. He was accused of cherishing the definite purpose of keeping the colony in complete subjection, but charges of that kind brought about no difference in his method of action. It can easily be seen that during the earlier part of his administration the state of affairs was not at all agreeable. As time wore on, however, and prospects improved, a better tone prevailed. Much of the irritation subsided, and if the governor did not become actually popular, his unpopularity very sensibly diminished. There was, indeed, a marked approach to cordiality of feeling on the part of the people before the time came for his departure, and within a recent period he personally assured the writer of his strong attachment to the colony, his sustained interest in its welfare, and his deep desire to re-visit it and witness the progress it has made.

Historians differ very widely in their estimate of the character and effects of Captain Grey’s administration. On the one hand, it is contended that he saved the colony from ruin; that it was plunging, or being plunged, recklessly into difficulties from which it never could have emerged when he took the reins, arrested its downward course, and rescued it from destruction. On the other hand, he has been described as both harsh and tyrannical. It is said that he produced a crisis which need not have occurred, caused disasters that might have been averted, and aggravated evils he might have remedied. His policy of insisting on the occupation of the land and promoting useful industries is credited to his predecessor, and the returning prosperity of which he witnessed the commencement, to causes outside the range of his influence.

Perhaps the truth lies between these extremes. He was, and is, a man of singular capacity, firmness, and courage; and this is proved by his career in Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. He was sent out to do rough and unpleasant work, and it was not possible for him to do it well and yet please everybody. He is at least entitled to great credit for his energy and fidelity to what he believed to be his duty. He had to encounter a storm of popular clamour, which would have caused most men to swerve from their course, but he met it unmoved. For this he is entitled to respect, and if some of his acts seemed arbitrary at the time, the peculiar difficulties of his position go far towards their justification.

During this term the colony passed through its darkest hour, but even before its close a brighter day had dawned. Pastoral products were increasing, and agriculture was spreading very rapidly, but the prices of all staple commodities were ruinously low. Sheep were boiled down for their tallow, and wheat was worth only half-a-crown a bushel, when the mineral wealth of the country was discovered, and proved its salvation. On January 23rd, 1844, five drayloads of copper ore from the Kapunda mine reached Adelaide, and caused the wildest excitement. The following year a shepherd named Pickett came across an outcrop of similar ore fifty, miles farther north. This was the famous Burra Burra mine, in which the only capital invested was twelve thousand three hundred and twenty pounds, and from which copper to the value of nearly five million sterling was taken before it ceased to be worked in 1877. These and other discoveries greatly revived business, attracted population, remunerated labour, expanded commerce, and inaugurated permanent prosperity.

ON October 25th, 1845, a change in the administration was effected by a new governor being privately sworn in. This was Lieut. -Col. Fred. Holt Robe, who had been somewhat suddenly sent from Mauritius to take the place of Captain Grey, as on account of the trouble in connection with the Maori war, the Imperial Government was anxious to employ the proved ability of the latter in New Zealand. It was whispered that Governor Grey had bequeathed his policy to his successor, and the surmise was strengthened by the apparent inability or disinclination of Colonel Rob to frame one of his own. The circumstance that he was only sworn in as lieutenant-governor was also commented upon as indicating that it was intended for him to occupy merely a temporary and subordinate position, the latter element applying to the colony over which he was sent to govern as well.

For the most part, Governor Robe was content to follow the example set before him, and to carry, on the administration according to the lines that had been laid down, but it is curious that when he diverged from it he generally made a mistake. There are some half-dozen matters with which his name is especially connected, and it is remarkable that what he did was subsequently reversed, while what he refused to do was afterwards carried into effect. Thus he imposed an impolitic royalty, which was soon abolished, on minerals; he devoted public money to the support of religion in the face of strong opposition. This stirred up a large amount of strife, and the subsidies were speedily discontinued. He granted to Bishop Short, as a site for a cathedral, an acre of land in Victoria Square, in the very centre of the city, close to where the General Post Office now stands; but the validity of the grant was successfully contested by the City Council on behalf of the citizens, the Supreme Court deciding, that the Executive had no power to alienate any part of the public estate. On the other hand, he refused to re-establish the Corporation, and even declined to sanction the expenditure for repairing the roadway in Hindley Street, though in the middle of it bullock drays were daily bogged in the mud. The one speech he made that is distinctly remembered was delivered to a deputation that had been appointed by a public meeting to wait upon him with a protest against State aid to religion. Holding his gloves and walking-stick in his hands, he allowed the spokesman to read the document they had been instructed to present, and then replied —"I have no remarks to make, gentlemen." Probably he had no intention whatever of being discourteous, but the incident was remarkably characteristic of his entire administration.

Though this may appear to be an unflattering portraiture, it has to be borne in mind that Governor Robe was in an anomalous position, for which he was not altogether responsible. He has been described as an emergency man, and the term is not very inappropriate. He was by inclination and training, as well as by profession, a thorough soldier, and had neither a knowledge of the duties which he was unexpectedly called upon to discharge nor a liking for them. His military career had invested him with a certain amount of formal preciseness which his confirmed bachelorhood had not tended to decrease. For all that, he was essentially a high-bred English gentleman, and though he lacked the flexibility and adaptiveness which tends to popularise a public man, those who came to know him well, learned to hold him in high esteem, in spite of his habitual reticence and reserve. He was not to blame because his administration cannot be called a brilliant success, though it must be admitted that the prosperity of the colony during his term of office merely shows that its upward movement had become steady and continuous.

Unquestionably, the most important event of the time was the revolution that took place in agricultural pursuits by means of the invention of the reaping-machine. On the Adelaide plains the wheat-straw during harvest-time becomes as brittle as glass, and the grain perfectly loose in the ear and even were there sufficient labour available for hand-reaping to be employed, which has never been the case, that method would be wasteful. As the cultivated area widened, the difficulty increased. Magnificent crops of wheat could be grown, but the means for their ingathering were too scanty. Rewards were offered for mechanical contrivances to meet the case. A locomotive thrashing machine, to deal with the cars alone and leave the straw for subsequent treatment, was the desideratumm and local inventiveness at length supplied the want. It is said that the first idea came from an old volume in which was a wood-cut representing a sort of hand-cart used by the ancient Romans, propelled by one man while another struck the wheat-ears into it. Mr. J. W. Bull claimed to have evolved in his own mind the idea of a projecting comb with revolving beaters, operated by a band from the traction-wheel, and to have had the earliest working model constructed from his suggestions. Others have asserted their share in the invention, but it is generally conceded that Mr. John Ridley built the first machine that was actually used. It was a clumsy affair, drawn by a team of bullocks, attached to a pole that stuck out behind like a tail. This was tested during the harvest of 1843. Other machines on better principles were made the following year, but another season or two elapsed before the defects which caused them to break down incessantly were remedied, and the Ridley reaper came into general use. Since then improvements by scores have been introduced, and such machines multiplied by the ten thousand. In its way, this invention has been as important as the discovery of copper, for it has rendered possible the profitable cultivation of hundreds of thousands of acres, and added incalculably to the national wealth.

THE advent of a civilian governor for the first time was welcomed and regarded hopefully, by almost all classes, and the sequel showed that as usual the popular instinct was right. During six eventful years —from August, 1848, to December, 1854 —Sir H. Ed. Fox Young administered the affairs of the province with marked success, and witnessed substantial progress in several directions. Some degree of friction between a governor exercising arbitrary power and a people desiring and competent for representative institutions was inevitable, and the only wonder is that there was so little, especially as more or less agitation for constitutional reform was going on all the time. The governor was careful not to act in a high-handed manner, entered heartily into schemes that promised to develop the resources of the country, sympathised with it in all its affairs, and laboured energetically, if not always judiciously, in the promotion of its interests.

A severe though only temporary check was experienced in 1851 and for some time afterwards, when the attractions of the goldfields in Victoria almost denuded the colony of its labouring population. Merchants, bankers, and all owners of property were driven almost to their wit’s end. Mines were closed, enterprise arrested, and business brought to a standstill. At this juncture, when everything portended a speedy collapse, Mr. Gregory S. Walters, of the English and South Australian Copper Company, suggested to Mr. —afterwards Sir —Richard D. Hanson, who was then attorney-general, the adoption of a measure to make gold by weight a legal tender at a fixed standard value. The idea was eagerly embraced, and its adoption was especially urged by Mr. Tinline, the manager of the Bank of South Australia, who saw in it a way of escape from the serious embarrassment that loomed near through the growing depreciation of all kinds of securities. His share in the work has been frequently and fully recognised, but that of Mr. Walters has passed comparatively unnoticed. The principle was incorporated in the Bullion Act, for the passing of which by the Legislature all standing orders were suspended. To give it effect, the overland escort was organised, and was skilfully managed and led by Mr. Alexander Tolmer, a portion of the wealth acquired by the South Australian gold-diggers thus being brought into the colony, and exercising a beneficial effect which was speedily witnessed in a renewal of confidence and activity. Next in importance must be placed as an historical event the opening of the Murray to steam navigation. Captain Cadell, having descended the river from Victoria in a canvas boat, drew fresh attention to the capabilities of that stream and the prospects of profitable traffic along its course. His Excellency took an enthusiastic interest in the subject. Numerous accidents had occurred at the mouth of the river, in one of which Sir J. Jeffcott was drowned, and it was generally accepted that the shifting channel and treacherous bar rendered that passage impracticable, but the governor believed that a good port might be made of Port Elliot if connected by a short tramway of seven miles with the Murray at Goolwa. He got a bonus offered for the first steamer of a certain power that should reach the Darling junction, and he accompanied Captain Cadell to Echuca, one thousand three hundred miles, in the "Lady Augusta." There can be no doubt that he was too sanguine. He seemed to ignore all the difficulties attending the navigation of a river with such a variable water supply as the Murray, and the possibility of the eastern colonies drawing off its trade at points farther inland. He got the tramway constructed, and twenty thousand pounds spent on a breakwater at Port Elliot. He believed and wrote that it would become "the New Orleans of the Australian Mississippi," but the money was literally thrown into the sea The place is a mere jagged notch in a rocky coast, a life trap, utterly inadequate for a harbour, and has never been of any use for such a purpose. The glowing prospects have faded, the river traffic is under a heavy cloud, and Victoria taps it with her railway system.

Other public works were initiated, and notably railways to the Port and northward. Governor Young saw the commencement but not the completion of the former. The inexperience of almost everybody concerned in its construction cost the colony an enormous sum. The work was accomplished after such a fashion that a single line of less than eight miles over a dead level, without a single engineering difficulty to overcome, and only one bridge to build, cost nearly, a quarter of a million sterling. The wonder that such a prodigality of expenditure must excite may be mitigated somewhat if it be the fact that what Charles Simeon Hare, one of its many superintendents, complained of were true, namely, that being required to find work for the unemployed, in order to relieve the labour market which was suffering from ail unwonted plethora, he had to set fourteen men to fill a cart!

THIS period was one of great political activity. There had been a legislative council, consisting of four official and four non-official members, but the people had nothing to do with their appointment, and the govern or -preside tit, armed with veto power, was a little king. In 1851 a new council assembled, composed of eight nominee and sixteen elective members. Two years afterwards that body passed ail Act for a parliament to consist of a legislative council, the members of which were to be appointed by, the governor, and for life, and a house of assembly elected by the people. The measure was sent to England for approval, but being, strongly, petitioned against, was referred back to the colony. A general election to ascertain the feeling of the country, took place in 1855, and the council then chosen formulated the Constitution, which, being assented to by the Queen, came speedily into operation, and with comparatively slight modifications, has continued ever since. "Thus was launched," to quote Mr. Anthony Forster, "in a colony with a population of little over one hundred thousand souls, and placed sixteen thousand miles away from any controlling authority, a system of responsible government involving the principles of universal suffrage, vote by ballot, equal electoral districts, and triennial parliaments. And to a community thus governed was committed the absolute administration and disposal of the whole territory of the Crown, embracing nearly three hundred million acres of land. The concession of so vast a power, to be exercised in untried circumstances, indicated on the part of the Home authorities a large amount of confidence in the loyalty, intelligence, and prudence of the inhabitants of so distant a dependency. Nor can it be said, so far as experience goes, that this confidence has been unwisely or undeservedly bestowed." While this movement was going on, measures for local government were also being brought into operation. The Corporation of the City of Adelaide was resuscitated, and district councils were established all over the colony giving ratepayers in each locality the control and management, to a large extent, of their local affairs.

AN interregnum of several months occurred after Sir H. E. F. Young left South Australia for Tasmania, during which the government was administered by the Hon. Boyle T. Finniss. Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell took the reins of office In June, 1855, and held them for the unusual term of nearly seven years. Under his auspices the work of constitutional reform was completed, and though for a while he seemed to think it his business to give advice to his ministers, instead of to receive it from them, he soon accepted a more correct view of the situation. He was energetic, large-minded, and personally popular. His catholic sympathies induced him to receive the Rev. Thomas Binney as a guest at Government House, and to request permission for him to preach in an episcopalian church. This Bishop Short felt it his duty to refuse, and a memorable correspondence followed. The Port railway was opened, and a beginning made with northern railways by the construction of a line to Kapunda, fifty miles in length. A few months after the governor, Mr. C. Todd arrived with telegraphic appliances, and began the energetic course he has since followed. The first work he superintended was a line from Adelaide to the Port, and it is recalled, with some amusement, that the revenue therefrom was for the first day five shillings and six pence; for the second, two shillings and six pence; for the third, one shilling and nine pence; and for the fourth, one shilling and three pence. A rival line, erected by Mr. James Macgeorge, had been opened a few weeks before, and took most of the business, but the government purchased it for eighty pounds, and pulled it down. The next extension was to Gawler, and in less than three years communication was opened with Melbourne.

The parliament proved its legislative capacity in many ways, but chiefly by passing the measure, known as the Torrens Act, for simplifying the transfer of land, and for securing titles to it. Mr. R. R. Torrens, who subsequently received the well-merited honour of knighthood in recognition of his valuable services, had held the office of collector of customs, and his experience in the transfer of shipping property, together with the legal knowledge and experience of land legislation on the continent of Europe possessed by Dr. Hübbe, who rendered him considerable assistance, enabled him to fight an uphill battle with complete success. South Australians are not a little proud of their leading position in this department of legal reform, and proud also that the example they set has been copied extensively elsewhere.

While this was going on, preparation was being made for the opening of the northern areas for agricultural settlement. An extension of territory was gained by the acquisition of a strip of country known as No Man’s Land, containing about eighty, thousand square miles, between the former boundary of the colony, and that of Western Australia, but it has never been of much real advantage. Mining industry, received an extraordinary impetus by the discovery of rich deposits of copper on Yorke’s Peninsula. Many mines were opened, but the most famous and valuable were those at Wallaroo and Moonta. The latter, without calling up any capital whatever from its shareholders, has paid a million sterling in dividends.

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