cultivation ebbed and flowed, constantly making more progress as small settlers became landholders, and became more steady. As a general rule it may be asserted that miners are situated in barren districts, and obliged to draw their grain and vegetables from some considerable distance. The system of eighty-acre lots enables colonists of the cultivating class to plant themselves upon land in the most convenient distance for supplying the mines. These same cottage farmers also derived great advantage from contracts for conveying ore from the mine to the port, and coals and wood to the smelting establishments, in their bullock-drays.

In 1850 the whole original scheme of the colony had disappeared: cultivation was entirely in the hands of the working classes; the capitalists and educated were engaged either as squatters, in commerce, or in mining speculations. The remains of the old ideas were only to be found in a little grandiloquent speechmaking, and, better still, in some very beautiful gardens. There were a few fortunate purchasers of town lots in the' main streets who made and retained very handsome fortunes.

Mining speculations were carried to a length as extreme as in Cornwall itself. Yet in all the numerous works on South Australia it is difficult to discover, for it is never plainly stated, that only one public mine, the Burra Burra, ever paid a dividend. The Kapunda has never been

in the market, having been retained by Captain Bagot, Mr. Dutton, and a few friends. It is extremely rich in yield, but, the ground being tender, the expenses in propping it up are great, as timber is scarce and labour dear.

In Cornwall there are always a certain number of mines for sale to strangers. It was the same in South Australia. Mines were manufactured for the benefit of green emigrants. For this reason the recent crisis, in which the emigration of many thousands destroyed all fictitious credit, will do good, by directing the attention of South Australians to the true resources of their noble province.

In 1850 not less than thirty-nine mining schemes, in various stages of progress, were before the British and South Australian public, none of which paid a dividend. Most of them depended on English capital for their working, and nearly all, according to colonial accounts, only required a little more money to become most flourishing. The following mines were all at a discount before the gold discoveries stopped the working of all but those which were really solid undertakings:

The Wheal Gawler silver-lead mine was opened in 1841, being the first mine worked in the province. After being abandoned it was reopened by a company without success, although with "good

prospects," in 1850. Then, among other non-paying mines, there are the Adelaide Mining Company, near Montacute, with a capital of £1,000; the Australian Mining Company, with an English capital of £400,000, and a special survey of Reedy Creek, forty-six miles from Adelaide, other lots at Tunghillo and at Kapunda, founded in 1845-the outlay has been enormous-no dividends; the Barossa Mining Company, with a capital of £30,000, formed in England, with a view of prosecuting mineral explorations on the property of G. T. Angas, Esq.; the Glen Ormond, another English company, with a capital of £30,000, founded in 1845; the Port Lincoln, with a capital of £10,000; the Mount Remarkable, with a capital of £25,000, in 1846; the North Kapunda, a capital of £22,200, in 1846; the Paringa, capital £20,000, in 1845; the Port Lincoln, capital £4,000, in 1848; the Princess Royal, capital £20,000, in 1845: this was the unlucky half of the Burra.

There were two gold companies established in 1846, the workings of one of which were suspended in 1850, "pending an anticipated sale of the sett in England."

Two conclusions may be drawn from an examination of the reports of these mines-first, that South Australia is extremely rich in minerals ; and secondly, that parties who do not understand mining should be cautious in taking the advice of South Australian friends as to mining investments.

The following statement of the results of the Burra Burra mine will show that the South Australians have some reasonable excuse for the gambling mining spirit with which they are afflicted, and which succeeded to the town-lot roulette of 1839-40:—

The Burra proprietary divided their purchase into 2,464 shares of £5 each, with liberty to increase their capital to £20,000, which they have since done.

In the first year, from 29th September, 1845, to 29th September, 1846, at a cost of £16,624, they raised 7,200 tons of ore. As the depth of the workings increased a great improvement in the quality of the ore took place; instead of the blue carbonate, the red oxide, malachite, and the richest description of ore became predominant. The highest price realized for the first 800 tons was £31 9s., and the lowest £10 16s., per ton. At a considerable distance from the principal workings eighty tons of blue and green carbonate of copper were raised in the month of March, 1847.

In the months of June and July, 1847, the first and second dividends of fifty shillings each per share were paid to the shareholders. These dividends were paid out of the net proceeds of 2,959 tons of ore, amounting to £35,678, out of which also were paid the expenses of the

PROGRESS OF BURRA MINE-SMELTING WORKS.

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association, including the cost of producing the 2,959 tons of ore, amounting to £15,926, leaving an undivided balance of £7,584. During the six months ending 30th September, 1847, 7,264 tons were raised within that period of a superior quality. During the six months ending the 31st March, 1848, 6,068 tons were raised. The large raising of the whole year, amounting to 13,533 tons, was produced from within the limits of the twenty-fathom level. All the ore discovered below that to the thirty fathoms was left for future raising, there being plenty of good ore-ground above the twenty-fathom level to employ the miners for some time to come.

The wages and cost of working the mine, including timber, fixed machinery, tools, &c., amounted to £74,030, and the cartage of the ore to £44,803.

In this year £83,106 was realized, out of which the expenses of working the mine and carting the ore were paid, but three further dividends were declared. By March, 1848, the original £5 shares had advanced up to £150; a sixth and seventh dividend of £10 each, in June and September, raised the prices to £200 and £210 for cash. A fall afterwards took place in consequence of the depreciation of the value of copper in Europe. But an important discovery was made of a valuable lode in the thirty-fathom level leading from Kingston to Graham's shaft. The lode was cut four fathoms below the water level, was solid, and from ten to eleven feet wide, composed of a compact green carbonate or malachite, producing upwards of 40 per cent. of copper. The lode was described as clearly defined, in easy working order, and dipping well into the mine.

In the half year ending the 30th September, 1848, 10,163 tons were raised, making a sum total for the ore raised during the first three years' working of the mine of 33,386 tons, equal to upwards of 10,000 tons of fine copper ore (at £70 per ton), £700,000. The cost of the mine for the year ending the 30th of September, 1848, was £81,491; of the cartage of ore, £31,445.

In the latter part of 1848 the miners struck for higher wages. The workings of the mine were suspended from November until February, 1849. In March the miners resumed work.

Further important discoveries were made—one of a lode in the thirty-fathom level, south-west from Graham's shaft, consisting of red oxide and malachite in great abundance; and the other of a lode two fathoms wide, yielding malachite of high produce. Only two pitches were set on these lodes, and twelve men at work at them in the first week produced eighty tons of the richest ores.

On the 5th of September, 1849, an eighth dividend of £5 per share was declared. In the year 1850 the £10 quarterly dividends were regularly paid. Two steam-engines of 35-horse power each, one for crushing the ore and the other for drawing from the shafts, arrived; and the directors ordered seventy fathom of fifteen-inch pumps to replace the eleven-inch lifts then in work, and a pumping-engine of 300-horse power. The quantity of ore raised in the year ending September, 1850, was 18,692 tons. Since that period the returns have experienced a temporary check from the emigration to the gold-diggings, and shares. have fallen to £50.

Smelting Works.

The copper ore raised in the South Australian mines has been principally sent to Swansea. As there is a considerable demand for copper in India and China, it became an object to refine the ore in South Australia. With this view several copper-smelting companies were established, but hitherto with moderate success, in consequence of the scarcity of fuel, although an immense capital has been sunk. Coal has not yet been discovered; therefore the smelters were dependent on wood or imported coal. A large forest is soon consumed, according to experience in Norway, by the demands of a smelting establishment. The most extensive smelting works, late the property of Messrs. Schneider, have unfortunately been planted close to the Burra mine, where wood is scarce, and where four tons of coal must be carted up for every ton of ore. The proper site would have been at or near a port.

These, then, have been the especial occupations and investments of South Australian colonists. Pastoral pursuits are followed as in the other two colonies. The number of sheep grazing is about one-sixth that of Port Phillip district. Fat cattle are driven over from Portland Bay to Rivoli Bay for South Australian consumption.

The remarks on pastoral pursuits apply to all the three colonies. South Australia is at present under a cloud, but the depression can be but temporary. Such a mine as the Burra must be worked, and the colony will profit, even although the dividends of the original shareholders be reduced one half, and wages of miners doubled. A genial sun, a fertile soil, a healthy climate, with English colonists, sheep, cattle, and pastures, cannot but produce good fruits, although the grand dreams of "empire" of newly-fledged legislators may scarcely be realized. Statistics of South Australia in 1850, the Fifteenth Year of its Settlement. The following abstract of elaborate official statistical tables will show the condition of South Australia previous to the gold crisis :