1 843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



395 



tively 78,000, 4,000, and 13,000; the population of North Australia is 

 not given, but Van Dieman's Land is stated at 43,000. Australia has suf- 

 ferred equally vvilh New Zealand in regard to the disastrous effect of 

 a slow and inefficient survey, and from the injustice of the Special 

 Survey Law prohibiting the cutting of wood and cultivation of the 

 ground in unappropriated lands. The enormous amount of £4000 is 

 requisite to get a special survey- The squatting system is mostly 

 acted upon, which is a complete bar to the cultivation of the land for 

 agricultural purposes, in consequence it only remains pastoral. The 

 squatters pay a licence of 40s. per annum per square mile, and who 

 upon (heir leaving are paid for the stock yard by the proprietor. 



I have perused the letters of a relative who arrived in Adelaide, 

 South Australia, in September 1839, and from whose experience and 

 residence I am indebted for the following fact connected with the 

 county as regards the system pursued with respect to lands, its price 

 and suggested improvement. The cost of a Special Survey has been 

 stated, which entitles the parties to a selection of as many acres as 

 pounds are paid for the survey out of 23 square miles which is allowed 

 to extend twelve miles in length, and any breadtli ; to make up the 

 quantity, by this means the county is gutted of good land, and the re- 

 mainder is unsaleable on account of its distance from a common cross- 

 ing or reserved acre with water ; it also prevents cultivation as good 

 land is kept for sheep runs, to prevent which, as also the bad land re- 

 maining for ever on the hands of government, it is recommended to 

 divide the blocks into G40 acres or square miles, and again to divide 

 them into sections, say two of fine land with water, three hilly with 

 water, and three wood and mountain, and to make the price propor- 

 tional to the 20s. value, and to fix a maximum price for each descrip- 

 tion to prevent malignant bidding, at 40s. for fine land, 20s. for hilly, 

 and 6s. Sd. for mountain. At present the special surveys generally 

 bring from 50 to cent, per cent, profit after examined by the public, 

 five per cent is paid on a survey to the party who discovers and marks 

 the boundary of the proposed survey, and five guineas is paid to an 

 agent for the selection of each section, which is a much cheaper and 

 better plan than exploring the land personally, and if a special survey 

 is required, a year will elapse in waiting for the leisure of the surveyor, 

 and of these surveys already completed the proprietors pick out por- 

 tions and delay the rest, and monopolize the district by reserving 

 those containing water; and to prevent small holders of land orders 

 coming and settling and sharing with the large resident proprietor 

 the sheep runs, they have large districts surveyed, and then allow 

 them to be occupied by squatters, the proprietor picking out all 

 the best sections. To counteract this an attempt is sometimes made 

 by an association of small capitalists joining and getting a special 

 survey jointly, and fixing previously a sole arbitrator to fix the site of 

 each location ; but this plan did not succeed on account of the squabbles 

 occasioned by the selection and the delay in fixing the site of each 

 party to the joint survey although land has been obtained by this 

 means that sold for 30s. to 70s. per acre. Unsurveyed lands in Mount 

 Barker district of South Australia have been sold as high as £60 per 

 acre. Of those land orders which have not been appropriated, the old 

 ones have a priority, and are reserved to pounce on good sections as 

 soon as they are surveyed, in preference to recent emigrants. Some 

 of these land orders have been sold with three months credit as high as 

 £70, and one a year old for £90, and one of older date for £100. 



I will now proceed to give a description of the result of the emi- 

 gration of my relative as regards his prospects, and a description of 

 his location. He sailed from Scotland March 15, 1S3 1 J, and arrived at 

 Port Adelaide on the 30th Aug. following. On Sept. 20, he removed 

 to Adelaide Town, and took a lease for fourteen years of a coiner site, 

 70 ft. front, and 70 ft. deep, in Hindley Street, at a rent of 15s. per 

 foot per annum. He bought, through an agent, an 80-acre section of 

 suburban land for £240, in Mount Barke'r District, 3 on which he 

 erected an inn at a cost of £'.)0, built of turf, and thatched, which he 

 has let for five years, at £100 for the first, and £125 for four follow- 

 ing years : he has sold two and half acres in allotments, which yield 

 £2s per annum: lie has also sown 25 acres, which with seed cost £120; 

 also one acre of whins, furze, or gorse, and planted 70 trees, viz. apple, 

 pear, plum, peach, quince, apricot, citron, gum trees, and vines ; he 

 has also sown the following seeds — cherry, damson, cape gooseberry, 

 hop, cocoa-nut, peas, beans, turnip, water and rock melons, pumpkin, 

 cucumber, cabbage, sixteen varieties of greens, potatoes, plum, 

 orange, grape, cotton, silver tree, capsicum, and aloes. 



The tliermometer in the shade stands at 70° to 90°, and in the sun 

 at 115° to 120°. In the colony of South Australia there are about 

 12,000, although Mr. Jamieson says 15,000 inhabitants, and in Ade- 



:l Section 4208 in Button's Survey, near Onkapannga or Anyus River and 

 road to Smallies survey, anil passes one end and the ride or ruad to Mount 

 Barker in which 8080 acres are survcye I. 



laide alone one-half reside. The price of land in town is from £8 to 

 £20 an acre. In the town of Adelaide the streets are laid out recti - 

 linearly, there being about three houses on each acre; it is divided 

 into two portions by a valley, in which runs the chain of pools called 

 the River Torrens : the intervening ground is reserved as a common. 

 Seven miles is the distance to Port Adelaide, the nearest point at 

 which vessels can load. The principal street is Hindley Street, three 

 quarters of a mile long, and its continuation, Rundle Street ; but 

 King William Street, leading from the Government House and Post 

 Ollice, will be the most superior. Currie Street, next Hindley Street, 

 to the south, is being filled up, but not closely; and beyond it houses 

 are erected having little appearance of a town. Rosina Street is the 

 name of another, in which my relative temporarily set up his tent. 

 In Hindley Street a site, 25 ft. X IS ft., was let for two years on 

 lease at a rent of £83 per annum, and £40 was paid for the lease : 

 another, with a frontage of SO ft. X 100 ft., was let for 50s. a foot per 

 annum. 



The following is a description of the buildings. The Capitol is a 

 mud house, with a reed roof, a sheet for a door, and an apron for a 

 window, the Pise is cornered with brick. There are a few brick 

 houses. The English church is built with rubble stone, and is already 

 in a dilapidated state, and has been partly rebuilt with a square tower 

 at one end, with a shingle pyramid and transept intersecting the 

 other. The Methodist building is ornamented with four Doric 

 columns and pediment the span of the roof. The Independents are 

 seeking subscriptions; and the Seceders and Kirk of Scotland are 

 also about erecting places of worship. In the vicinity are several 

 Germans who have settled, carrying with them their peculiarity of 

 construction : four miles north 200 are settled on the division of 

 labour and profit; and at a distance of 28 miles is their settlement of 

 2000 acres called Klemzig : it is a long street, with isolated houses 

 in gardens, with the gables towards the street. They have another 

 settlement eighteen miles off, and which was one of the first special 

 surveys: it is named Hansdorf; it is not so clean in appearance as 

 Klemzig. 



The port where the Post Office and bonded stores are is badly 

 situated, boats of two feet draught grounding in the mud. Large 

 ships lie at the intersection of the north arm of the creek nine miles 

 from port; but four miles higher up many ships lie there having fif- 

 teen feet water. The height on the bar at top of tide is sixteen feet. 

 To remedy the inconvenient situation of the port the South Aus- 

 tralian Company is making a road to the creek, and propose to erect 

 jetties. A canal is already cut through the swamp, and a road is 

 making alongside, towards which each cart visiting the landing brings 

 a load of sand from the hill as toll. The creek is called the Sixteen- 

 mile Creek, and for twelve miles is lined with mangroves, the distant 

 hills backing the landscape. The range is a gradual rise from En- 

 counter Bay : Mount Lofty is six miles from town, and is 2200 feet 

 high; Mount Barker is a few feet less, and commands a view of a 

 dozen surveys. Both these mounts have given names to the districts 

 adjoining. The roads are laid down straight, with cross roads every 

 four or six sections. 



Mr. Jamieson, in his work before alluded to, mentions crossing the 

 hill range in Mount Barker District with two Scotchmen, one of whom 

 was my relative, and from whose letters I have collated the preceding 

 notes. They took the old Tiers road by Mount Lofty, and visited the 

 Cattle Company's station, and passed through Meadous' Survey, 

 Smallies' Survey, and the Three Brothers' Survey, on the bank of the 

 Onkaparinga or Angus River, and then proceeded 25 miles south on 

 the Wollinga River, where the land is good, and some eligible sec- 

 tions taken. The Angus River and Hindmarsh River, the latter near 

 to Lake Alexandria, are the discoveries of Mr. Cock, who is fully 

 described in Jamieson's work as a successful emigrant. 



The colony was founded in 1830, and in a Parliamentary Blue 

 Book published in 1842, the present governor states that the entire 

 population is 16,000, of which there are in the town 8474 ; anil that 

 there are 63 public-houses ; and that in 1841 the government revenue 

 was £30,000, and expenditure, £ 150,000; and that 3000 acres were 

 under cultivation; and that a jail, which is incomplete, had been 

 erected at a cost of £32,000, or more than one year's revenue. 

 Duriug 1S42, the land under cultivation had increased from 300U to 

 10,000 acres, and the crops were valued at £98,000 ; so that, from 

 the above account, the trial may be said to be over, and the colony 

 fairly planted ; the trials that have been undergone being the reverse 

 of Dickens' Eden, and more like the terse language of Scripture, 

 Australia being a land " wherein no waters be;" at least the fact of 

 water being reserved as a monopoly is prima/acic evidence of the 

 scarcity of it. 



In conclusion, the division of the land by arbitrators, the effect of 

 nefficient survey, the Company's reserves, and the squatting system, 



