Amongst our unfortunate "early experiences" must be counted the destruction by fire of several of our first temporary public buildings, as well as some of the residences of Government officials, the fire-king seeming to mark such structures composed of inflammable materials, chiefly wooden, and mostly thatched with reeds or grass, as temptations thrown in his way.

The first fire occurred shortly after mid-day, resulting in the total destruction of two wooden buildings which were situated to the west of the small post-office, and near where now may be seen the sheep market on North-terrace. These were Government offices. The one was occupied by the Resident Commissioner and his staff, the other was used for the Land and Surveyor-General's offices. The flames spread so rapidly that the officers and clerks were unable to save much, and many books, papers, and maps, were lost.

On the day of the fire I was driving on my way to visit sections about half way to the old Port, and passed near these offices, where business was going on all right. On my return, when about five miles from town, I saw a smoke spring up, and although I drove off at a quick pace, when I reached the scene of the fire the two buildings were reduced to smoking heaps.

Great inconvenience was experienced by the loss of books and public documents. The Resident Commissioner was Mr. (afterwards Sir James) Fisher, and the dwelling which contained his office was also his private residence. Colonel Light, the Surveyor General, lived in the other dwelling, and the devouring element did its work so rapidly that he saved nothing, and even his journal was destroyed, containing records of his experiences in Turkey, Egypt, the Mediterranean, and on the battlefields of Spain, where he served on the staff of Wellington. Colonel Light felt the loss of this journal very deeply, and stated that he would not have parted with it for several thousand pounds.

The next building which met a rapid fate was Government House, which was a temporary erection of one story, with a thatched roof, the timbers principally of native pine, then procured from what was called the Pine Forest, now known as Nailsworth. This fire commenced a short time before midnight, on the outside of the roof and was supposed, and with good reason, to have been ignited by an insane gentleman, who I may mention I met, with his lady, under that roof at a Government ball in Captain Hindmarsh's time.

This fire was also almost like a flash of gunpowder, and very little of Colonel Gawler's property was saved. The police were on the spot in a very few minutes, and Inspector Tolmer, after breaking in the window of His Excellency's private office, had succeeded in dragging a small safe or tin deed-box to the window, and had himself passed out again, when the roof fell in before the safe could be lifted out of the window, whereby a loss of most important papers and documents was sustained by Colonel Gawler.

These two fires forced upon the Governor the task of erecting a substantial Government House. Part only of the present modest palace was erected in his time, as well as a very small part of the present Public Offices. This necessity was a further calamity, as thereby labor was absorbed by the Government which was required by the colonists, and in consequence wages rose to an inconvenient extent, and private works were hindered.

I think the next fire was the destruction of the residence of Mr. John Brown, Emigration Agent, &c, a wooden building also, from which very little was saved.

Then came the burning of a structure called the Octagon Cottage, the first residence of the Colonial Treasurer, Osmond Gilles, Esq., one of the London-built frame houses constructed of deal which he had given with the land on which it stood as a parsonage for St. John's Church. At the time of this fire the cottage was occupied by the widow of our first Colonial Chaplain, with whom was her sister. The fire broke out after the ladies had retired to rest, and they had only time to save their lives.

After a time, substantial stone buildings having been erected, the colony has had a low average of visits from the fire king, except when he has come and travelled in his bush invasions, of which unfortunately for myself, I have had considerable experience. I was once met by a grand conflagration in the Tiers, when I fortunately, escaped with singes only. I was coming towards town with a mob of fat cattle on a hot day, a strong north wind blowing. After crossing the Onkaparinga by the Echunga-road I met clouds of smoke, indicating a fire at some distance ahead of my course, but as I mounted the first hill it seemed to be raging to the south of my line, and so I kept on. The cattle were travelling at a good pace. On attaining the next summit I found the fire had crossed the road at some distance ahead, and was rushing down a gully to the right of me, carried at a flying rate by the north wind.

In my endeavor to head the cattle they rushed off to my right towards the approaching fire, and charged a thick course or belt of green cherry tree, as it is called, which, being dense and high, somewhat obscured the flames. Before the cattle reached this shelter, as they expected to find it, the fire had overtaken it, and the green foliage was soon burning and crackling about them and over their heads. They could not, however, stop or turn in their impetuous rush, but dashed through the flaming hedge.

As I was close upon them, I followed over burning brush-wood which had been a good deal trampled out by the bullocks, and passed on over smouldering grass and bushes at full gallop after the cattle, trees on all sides being on fire and falling branches crashing in all directions ; but I was soon safe on the track again, on to which the cattle had turned and after having safely yarded them at Crafers was after a wash enjoying my lunch.

This was the only time I ever met and charged an approaching fire. I have on other occasions retreated, and started a fire to meet and contest with the one approaching, when out of a stringy bark forest; and also have had many a struggle in beating out bush fires, when with sufficient beaters it is a good plan to run a line of fire, although I, as well as many others, may have on some occasion been outflanked.

I was once called upon to suffer a severe loss from a bush fire, as many old colonists have been, after an unavailing contest. By the destruction of flour mills some of our millers have sustained heavy losses, especially the firm of Messrs. W. Duffield and Co., of the Union Mills, Gawler Town, which have been gutted three times. The Imperial Mill in Adelaide was the first mill burned, the interior of which was destroyed in a few hours in the day time.

In a former number I have mentioned that Mr. Emanuel Solomon arrived in the Lady Wellington, the back of which vessel was broken on the bar at the entrance of Light's Passage. The wreck was bought on account of a Sydney firm, and was got off and towed up towards the Old Port. I afterwards, as agent for that firm, sold her to the Governor, Colonel Gawler, for £800. As she was quite taut above and below, she was for a short time used as a Government store ship. At the time of the sale some doubt being thrown on the Government transactions by the refusal of the first Treasurer to sign the bills drawn by the Governor, I required cash, feeling I was not justified, as an agent, to risk any inconvenience to the parties for whom I was acting.

On this unfortunate vessel a great loss was made by the Government when she was sold and broken up, when the retrenchment orders were put in force by Captain Grey, and when the cruel crisis was worked out, and the sacrifice of much public property was made, as well as of the property of the pioneers. Sheep which cost 38s. a head were sold first for 5s., and the same resold a few months afterwards for 2s. 6d. Cattle which I had purchased at £13 10s. a head, on a forced sale realised only £4 10s., after being kept twelve months, and when in prime condition.

I may mention an early circumstance in the transactions of Mr. E. Solomon, who, seeing the great influx of population, and that nothing was being done to produce the staff of life, made a good speculation in purchasing a cargo of flour immediately on its arrival from a Mr. Russel, then a merchant here, part of which he shipped to his brother in Sydney, and offered the remainder of the same to the Government here at £30 a ton, well aware of a scarcity in New South Wales and Tasmania. The Government refused to buy the flour, and to prevent reshipment of any of the small stocks in the colony of flour and rice an export duty of £100 a ton was immediately put on breadstuffs. The flour Mr. Solomon had shipped to Sydney realised to him £50 a ton, and the price in this colony soon reached £100 a ton under the protection of the prohibitory export duty. The highest price I paid was £8 a bag, but for some time the price was £10 a bag.

The plough in a short time gave relief, and before the end of five years wheat was delivered in Adelaide at 2s. 6d. a bushel. Mr. Solomon and his firm suffered heavily in the crisis, and during the period in which the colony was recovering from the severe depression -which was so severely felt by all, but more especially by those of the early settlers who had expended their means and energies in launching the land of their adoption, found by them in a state of nature, and wandered over only by a few scattered aboriginals whose history defies research.

It must with justice be recorded of Mr. Emanuel Solomon that he has left his marks upon our now splendid city. At a very early period he erected our first and capacious theatre in Gilles Arcade, so named when no arcade existed, or has since appeared.

But I must not forget to mention the previous existence of a theatre. It was a small wooden structure, at the back of the Black Swan public-house, on North-terrace, where some who are now alive and moving in more exalted positions exhibited themselves. In justice to myself, I must declare that I was never within its paling walls, either as a spectator or a performer ; but I remember being told that ''a man of the name of Bartlett was one of the performers — a bullock-driver, whose deep, deep voice was often heard in our timber ranges, and afterwards on his section at Balhannah. The inhabitants of the young city were promised by the first manager that the tragedies of the immortal Shakespeare would be exhibited in this building. I do not know what characters Bartlett attempted, but his deep sepulchral tones were peculiarly adapted to give effect to the part of the ghost in Hamlet.

I introduce this performer by name, not because he long ago departed this life and so cannot be annoyed by a reference to his ambitious appearance on the stage with some of our early inhabitants, but that in truth I can mention I never knew anything worse of him than his appearance on the boards of our first humble theatre as a tragedian. I am quite sure all old colonists who heard his extraordinary voice will agree with me that it was one calculated to make a deep and lasting impression on any human audience, or on his team of bullocks.

It was to Mr. E. Solomon's spirited speculation in bricks and mortar we were indebted for the rescue of the drama from such an unbecoming and unworthy structure, as well as for early, and for the time, most respectable and commodious blocks of city residences which he erected. Mr. E. Solomon, though a Jew, contributed to all Christian churches and chapels erected in the early days.

Some considerable gatherings, in proportion to the number of the inhabitants then in the city, used to occur in the neighbor-hood of the Gilles Arcade. E. Solomon there had his first wooden store, and there were wooden cottages occupied as offices by the Treasurer, the Resident Magistrate, and one was the dwelling of Judge Jickling. On the opposite side of Currie-street was the Southern Cross Hotel, kept by F. Allen, where generally in a morning would be seen a number of people. It was a sort of exchange or place of meeting, and when no Court or other business occupied the time or thoughts of those present, idlers would indulge in practical jokes.

I remember on one occasion, after a heavy downpour of rain, which had left a number of ponds in various directions in the city, and when a large company had gathered for shelter and for refreshment, little dapper K—, then clerk of the Local Court, Civil side, which was not sitting that day, walked in attired most suitably to take a direct course in any bearing across the city. No streets were then formed, or channels to carry off surface water. K— on entering. exhibited with great pride his nether limbs encased in a brand new pair of, for him, exceptionally long patent leather boots, saying — ' There, I can defy the deepest pond of water within the city.' A wag offered to bet him he would point out a pond through which he would not be able to cross without getting out of his depth. The bet was made, rain had ceased to fall, and so the company followed the betting parties. K— was to walk in a straight course from where he was placed by his opponent to him, on a signal he would give on the opposite side of the pond, which was known, as far as to the natural surface of the ground, not to have a greater depth of water then would reach K—'s knees. At the signal off started K—, setting at defiance the advice of jokers to take off his coat, &c, &c. but to his sorrow, on reaching about half way across the temporary pond, he suddenly popped out of eight, but was soon out on the other side of a saw-pit, of the existence of which he was not aware, and of course he had an uproarious laugh against him; and on a return of the amused company to Host Allen's he had the consolation of partaking of refreshment, ordered by the winner of his money, the landlord as usual on such occasions being the chief winner.

This reminds me of a scene which occurred at the opening of the Town of Glenelg, on which occasion a splendid lunch was provided for a considerable invited company, to take place under a large tent, or rather connection of tents, on which occasion it was proposed to launch a cutter, to be named the O. G., which was built on the banks of the Pattawalonga Creek by Henning & Fenden. To add to the calamities of this day, the tide in the creek did not rise so as to float the first vessel built in the colony. The launch was given by the proprietors of the township, viz., the Treasurer, O. Gilles, Esq.; the Resident Magistrate, R. Wigley, Esq.; Mathew Smith, and W. Finke, Esquires.

The morning was fine, the company as numerous as the tables would accommodate, the provisions abundant, if not exhibiting any great variety of viands, but as to the supply of drinkables that was as choice, abundant, and various as ever seen on any table of the same picnic character even in the old country. Mrs. Gawler having honored the occasion with her presence, the entertainment was graced and enlivened by a large number of ladies in most elegant attire. Every available vehicle the settlement afforded was pressed for the occasion, but few covered ones unfortunately being obtainable.

I should mention early in the record of this opening day that the road between the city and Glenelg was then not formed, and very few of the sections between the two places fenced, and mere tracks over the natural surface were used. At the Bay were a few huts, two of which were licensed public houses — one kept by Henning & Fenden. This building was formed of pines, and thatched with reeds, and was, as far as I recollect, about 30 feet long by about 10 feet wide, and sides up to the roof about 8 feet high. I give this description as a specimen of the first houses to which licences used to be granted, and to explain the position the company were placed in by the heavy storm of wind and rain which overtook the party, and through which they had to hasten home in the absence of adequate shelter.

I had driven my wife and two male friends, with their wives, down in an open waggonette. The morning being so fine umbrellas had in too many instances been left at home. When the arranged toasts had been nearly exhausted the downpour of rain became very heavy. Before this it had been sufficient to prevent the retirement of the ladies, who were perforce compelled to remain during the carrying out of the programme, and as there seemed to be no abatement the sitting was considerably extended, and the consumption of drinkables also, the water pouring in from various swags in the canvas.

At length as no abatement of the heavy rain appeared likely the ladies determined to defy the elements. Mrs. Gawler's carriage was first at the opening of the tent, and she was conducted and sheltered to the door of her carriage by Mr. McLaren, the Manager of the South Australian Company. The ground had become so slippery that this polite gentleman fell down at the feet of the Governor's lady.

I should have mentioned that on the orders to bring up the carriages being given to servants, who were taking shelter in a small framed building where the stock of drinkables had been kept, word was brought to Mr. McLaren that his coachman had imbibed too freely, and could not be depended on, and that it was on Mr. McLaren rushing back from a lecture he had given the erring coachman to assist Mrs. Gawler that he slipped and fell. However, it was for a long time a standing joke that his coachman was summarily discharged for taking too much, when the master could not keep his own legs.

I galloped my horses back, leaving the track along which so many were moving as fast as their animals could travel. The storm of wind and rain was fortunately at our backs. I did not hear of any more serious mishap than the fall of one or two horsemen in the muddy track, and the destruction of feathers, ribbons, bonnets, &c. Whatever complaints were given way to among the ladies they kept to themselves, as the pockets of the paterfamilias had chiefly to suffer in restorations, and trade was thereby benefited.

I should mention in closing this paper the cutter O. G. was immediately after this unpropitious day privately christened and launched, and was for a long time usefully employed as a coasting vessel. (To be continued.)