Io2 



AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



No complaints of wet and sloppy weather are ever to be heard. On the 

 contrary, when the south-easter brings a heavy bursting bank of cloud with 

 it, there is a general rubbing of hands and utterance of congratulatory remarks. 

 ' Splendid rain to-day,' is the usual phrase ; and ' How far north does it extend?' 

 is the current query. But, admitting that the South Australian summer is hot, 

 it must be added that the climate during the other eight months is delightful. 

 One enthusiast declares that the pure soft balmy air is such as one would 

 expect to blow over ' the plains of heaven ; ' and at any rate there is first- 

 class medical testimony that for people with weak lungs there are few more 



Adelaide in 1837. 



hopeful resorts. The ' far north ' is subject to droughts and to floods, and the 

 Northern Territory has a weather system of its own. As the description of 

 its climate suggests, South Australia is a grand fruit country. Grapes, 

 peaches, apricots and oranges, grow practically without cultivation, and attain 

 perfection in the open air. In the season there are few tables in Adelaide 

 on which piles of grapes and plates of apricots and peaches are not to be 

 regularly found. The fruit can be purchased in the market at a penny a 

 pound, so that at current wages there is no occasion for the poorest of the 

 working classes to stint in these luscious products of the soil. 



