|
CHAPTER XX.
1. Temporary Decline.—In 1851 the prosperity of South Australia was somewhat
dimmed by the discovery of gold in Victoria; for, before the middle of the
following year, the colony was deserted by a very large proportion of its male
inhabitants. The copper mines were with difficulty worked, for want of men; the
fields were uncultivated, the sheep untended, and the colony experienced a
short period of rapid decline. However, the results obtained on the goldfields
by most of these fortune-seekers were hardly to be compared with the steady
yield of the fertile cornfields and rich copper mines of South Australia; and
the majority of those who had thus abandoned the colony returned in a short
time to their families and their former employments.
Governor Young adroitly turned the discovery of gold to the advantage of
his own colony by establishing an escort between Bendigo and Adelaide; and, as
this was remarkably well equipped, many of the diggers sent their gold by this
route rather than to Melbourne, thus giving to South Australia some of the
advantages of a gold-producing country. The crowds of people rushing to the
goldfields had carried with them nearly all the coins of the colony; and the
banks, although they had plenty of rough gold, were yet unable, from scarcity
of coined money, to meet the demands upon them. In this emergency, Sir Henry
Young took the extreme and somewhat illegal step of instituting a new currency,
consisting of gold cast into small bars or ingots; and, although afterwards
mildly censured by the Home Government for exceeding his powers, yet he could
justly assert that this measure had saved the colony from serious commercial
disaster.
But South Australia was still more benefited by the great market opened
for its flour and wheat among the vast crowds on the goldfields; and, when the
first period of excitement was over, it was found that the colony was, at any
rate, not a loser by the success of its neighbours.
2. The Real Property Act.—In
1858 South Australia took the lead in a reform which is now being adopted by
nearly all the civilised nations of the world. According to English law, each
time an estate was transferred from one person to another, a deed had to be
made out for the purpose; and if changes in its ownership had been frequent, it
would be held by the last purchaser in virtue of a long series of documents.
Now, if any one wished to buy a piece of land, he was obliged for safety to
examine all the preceding deeds in order to be quite certain that they were valid;
even then, if he bought the land, and another person, for any reason whatever,
laid claim to it, the owner had to prove the validity of each of a long series
of documents, going back, perhaps, for centuries. A flaw in any one of these
would give rise to a contest which could be settled only after a very tedious
investigation; and thus arose the long and ruinous
Chancery suits which were the disgrace of English law. When a man’s title to
his estate was disputed, it often happened that he had to spend a fortune and
waste half a lifetime in protracted litigation before all the antecedent deeds
could be proved correct.
Mr. R. Torrens had his attention drawn to this very unsatisfactory state
of things by the ruin of one of his relatives in a Chancery suit. He thought
long and carefully over a scheme to prevent the occurrence of such injustice,
and drafted a bill for a new method of transferring property. He proposed to
lay this before the South Australian Parliament, but his friends discouraged
him by declaring it was impossible to make so sweeping a change; and the
lawyers actively opposed any innovation. But Torrens brought forward the bill;
its simplicity and justice commended themselves to the people and to the House
of Assembly, and it was carried by a large majority. According to the new
scheme, all transferences of land were to be registered in a public office
called the Lands Titles Office, the purchaser’s name was to be recorded, and a
certificate of title given to him; after this his right to the property was
indisputable. If his possession was challenged, he had simply to go to the
Lands Titles Office and produce his certificate to the officer in charge, who
could turn to the register and at once decide the question of ownership. After
this, no dispute was possible. If he sold his land, his name was cancelled in
the public register, and the buyer’s name was inserted instead, when he became
the undisputed owner. Mr. Torrens was appointed to be registrar of the office,
and soon made the new system a great success; it was adopted one after another
in all the colonies of Australia, and must become eventually the law of all
progressive nations.
3. The Northern Territory.—In
1864 the Northern Territory was added to the dominion of South Australia, and
from Adelaide an expedition was despatched by sea to the shores of Van Diemen’s
Gulf, in order to form a new settlement. After many difficulties, caused
chiefly by the disputes between the first Government Resident, or
Superintendent, and the officers under him, a branch colony was successfully
founded at Port Darwin, opposite to Melville Island. This settlement has become
a prosperous one: all the fruits and grains of tropical countries flourish and
thrive to perfection; gold has been discovered; and it is asserted that there
exist in the neighbourhood rich mines of other metals, which will, in the
future, yield great wealth, while the stations that are now being formed are
peculiarly favourable to the rearing of cattle and of horses. Yet the number of
people who settle there continues small on account of the very hot climate;
Palmerston, the capital, is as yet a town of only a few hundred inhabitants,
and all the really hard work of the district is done by Chinese.
4. Overland Telegraph.—In a previous chapter it
has been described how MʻDouall Stuart, after two unsuccessful efforts, managed to cross the
continent from Adelaide to Van Diemen’s Gulf. Along the route which he then
took, the people of South Australia resolved to construct a telegraph line. A
gentleman named Charles Todd had frequently urged the desirability of such a
line, and in 1869 his representations led to the formation of the British
Australian Telegraph Company, which engaged to lay a submarine cable from
Singapore to Van Diemen’s Gulf, whilst the South Australian Government pledged
itself to connect Port Darwin with Adelaide by an overland line, and undertook
to have the work finished by the 1st of January, 1872. Mr. Todd was appointed
superintendent, and divided the whole length into three sections, reserving the
central portion for his own immediate direction, and entrusting the sections at
the two ends to contractors. It was a daring undertaking for so young a colony.
For thirteen hundred miles the line would have to be carried through country
which never before had been traversed by any white men but Stuart’s party.
Great tracts of this land were utterly destitute of trees, and all the posts
required for the line had to be carted through rocky deserts and over
treacherous sand-hills. Todd had, with wonderful skill and energy, completed
his difficult portion of the task, and the part nearest to Adelaide had also
been finished before the time agreed upon; but it fared differently with those
who had undertaken to construct the northern section. Their horses died, their
provisions failed, and the whole attempt proved a miserable collapse. The
Government sent a party to the north, in order to make a fresh effort. Wells
were dug, at intervals, along the route, and great teams of bullocks were
employed to carry the necessary provisions and materials to the stations; and
yet, in spite of every precaution, the result was a failure. Meanwhile the
cable had been laid, and the first message sent from Port Darwin to England
announced that the overland telegraph was not nearly finished. The 1st of
January, 1872, being now close at hand, Mr. Todd was hastily sent to complete
the work. But the time agreed upon had expired before he had even made a
commencement, and the company threatened to sue the South Australian Government
for damages, on account of the losses sustained by its failure to perform its
share of the contract. For the next eight months the work was energetically
carried forward; Mr. Todd rode all along the line to see that its construction
was satisfactory throughout. He was at Central Mount Stuart in the month of
August, when the two ends of the wire were joined, and the first telegraphic
message flashed across the Australian Continent. But, meantime, a flaw had
occurred in the submarine cable, and it was not until October that
communication was established with England. On the second day of that month,
the Lord Mayor of London, standing at one end of the line, sent his hearty
congratulations through twelve thousand five hundred miles of wire to the Mayor
of Adelaide, who conversed with him at the other extremity. The whole work was
undertaken and accomplished within two years; and already not only South
Australia, but all the colonies, are reaping the
greatest benefits from this enterprising effort. Another undertaking of a
similar character has been completed by the efforts of both South and West
Australia; along the barren coast on which Eyre so nearly perished there
stretches a long line of posts, which carries a telegraph wire from Perth to
Adelaide.
A period of depression began in South Australia after 1882. For a time
everything was against the colony. Long droughts killed its sheep and ruined
its crops; while the copper mines were found to be worked out. But fortune
began to smile again after a few years of dull times, and when in 1887 an
exhibition was held in Adelaide to commemorate the jubilee of the colony, it
was also the commemoration of the return of brighter prospects. In the growth
of wheat and fruits as well as in the making of wine South Australia has great openings for future prosperity.
CHAPTER XXI.
|
