Having alluded to the marines and to their indulgence in drink, I may here give some accounts of them under such influences even when on duty. Of these men one had been told off to act as guard over the Treasury. I furnish this instance as related to me by the Treasurer himself.

He had spent the evening with a few convivial friends (a not unusual occurrence in those early days), and on leaving the company for his own dwelling he had to pass near the tent then used as the Treasury, and in which was a large safe, his own private property, lent to the Government. As the moon was shining brightly, he could see the tent but not the sentinel. Feeling that something was out of place he approached the tent and found the guard lying down, with his musket beside him; so, although he was not on his legs he could not be said to have deserted his post.

The marine was addressed thus, in a loud voice, "Brown, what the d-—— , are you doing ?" and received a sharp kick in addition; but this only producing a grunt some further and more violent kicks were applied. On this the sleeper was aroused so far as to sit up and rub his eyes. He was then asked what he was about— did he know where he was?

"Yes, sir; yes, sir."

"Well, then, where are you?"

To this he blurted out, "Aboard the Buffalo, sure, sir ; but who are you, sir, kicking me? Oh, Lord, what shall I do -----its the Treasurer himself! Oh, sir, do not report me; good sir, I shall be ruined !"

"Well, then, get up and attend to your duty, you drunken rascal ; in the morning I will let you know what I shall do." The Treasurer added, after relating the above, with sundry strong words which I have omitted,

"The truth is, as there was only one shilling and sixpence in the safe, a guard might have been spared." The Government were aground at this time as to cash, but immediately afterwards a supply was obtained through the Treasurer's private means.

I will add one more example of the way in which these marine guards sometimes performed their duties during the short time they were so employed, which came under my own observation. I was returning home late one day after a long ride to the north of the city, and after sunset, and desired to make the north-east corner of South Adelaide as laid out. The night was dark, and on crossing the Torrens near where the Company's Bridge now stands, I was attracted by a log fire, and also could see a tent.

As I got near I became aware I had arrived at the encampment where a few prisoners, chained by the legs, were kept under charge of marines. This was about the centre of the ground now occupied by our charming Botanic Gardens. When I got sufficiently near I found no one about, but on closer inspection discovered guards as well as prisoners, all in a sound sleep; the sentinel who ought to have been patrolling around the spot, was lying on his back cuddling his brown bess and with an empty black bottle beside him. I conjectured that he had not taken his final and finishing drop until he had seen his comrades and prisoners safe in a helpless state of drunkenness.

I did not consider it politic, or necessary under the circumstances to disturb the slumbers of the guard, and I suppose that on the change of guards in the morning all matters were found to be in due form, as no prisoners escaped.

The services of the marines were not retained after the retirement of Captain Hindmarsh. From one of the original Government officers I had the following information. The Governor wishing to review and inspect his guards, ordered the corporal to bring them up for that purpose. After the due notice and some trouble their non-commissioned officer could only muster in a presentable state about half the squad for the Vice-Admiral's inspection. On this disgraceful display, as a matter of course, His Excellency's remarks, were more warm than complimentary. I do not think his reproof of the absent delinquents had more effect on those present than the remarks from the pulpit so often heard by the regular attendants at church have upon the stray sheep that are missed from the ecclesiastical fold.

Our first Governor had a most harassing time of it, and on being re-called by Lord Glenelg had the consolation of being informed by him that it was without censure, and to avoid the removal of responsibility from the South Australian Commissioners in London as to the peaceable government of South Australia, and that his confidence in Captain Hindmarsh was such as to enable him to give him without delay another appointment. I believe that nearly the whole of the marines after spending a jolly time in the colony were taken away by Captain Hindmarsh when he left Adelaide for Sydney in the month of July, 1838, in the Alligator, gun brig. I think the corporal was the only one left; he was a respectable man, and resided at Glenelg until his death. As to his rowdy men, they were put under discipline calculated to produce reformation after their long run ashore under sufficient restraint.

I now proceed to give some account of Captain Sturt. Shorty after his arrival in August, 1838, he invited settlers to meet him, offering to deliver a lecture on the prospects of agriculture and horticulture in South Australia. About 12 persons attended, all being interested in the subject, and who had come out with the intention of embarking in country pursuits. I was one of the company, having brought out two land orders on my own account, with power to exercise selection of sections for a non-resident. Amongst the audience were farmers who had arrived as tenants of the South Australian Company. The lecture was very interesting.

Captain Sturt's description of the country he passed over, after leaving the great River Murray, was most favorable; but when he came to give us his opinion of the plains of Adelaide, and of all the country to the west of the extensive ranges running north from Cape Jervis to then an unknown distance, his expressed anticipations were most discouraging. He said— "You gentlemen, who have taken so long a voyage to form agricultural farms, I caution you from my own experience of the climate of Australia, after residing in the province of New South Wales, not to attempt to break up land on the western plains, or you will meet with sad disappointment. You must not expect to get crops of grain or fruit on this side of the ranges; but I advise you to go to the beautiful hills, valleys, and flats between the ranges, and on the eastern slopes; there you will find excellent soil and plenty of good water. If you attempt to cultivate land around Adelaide you will be grievously disappointed," &c, &c.

Three practical men in the Company (two of them, now dead) ventured to express different opinions, and said from their examination of the alluvial soils on the condemned plains, they thought that, with sufficient rainfall they were convinced good crops would reward the farmer. To this Captain Sturt replied -

"The frequent droughts to which this continent is subject, as I have experienced, is the ground on which l base my remarks."

Within three years after the delivery of this lecture, sections on all sides of the city were smiling with crops of wheat, which yielded from 30 to 40 bushels an acre and in successive years, only diminishing in quantity of yield, through exhaustion and bad management. Such prolific yields have never been exceeded in any district, in the colony even when favored in respect to elevation and rainfall.

Captain Sturt, however, was not the only experienced explorer who erred in his opinions of the capabilities of the country, as will appear from what I have to give from the report of Mr. Eyre on his exploring journey north, when he discovered the horseshoe lake, which he named Lake Torrens, in his flying journey around Mount Deception (rightly named by him).

His report, published in the papers of the day, gave such a deplorable account of the sterility of the country north of Gawler Town and the want of water, that several intending settlers with capital, just arrived at that time, abandoned their intention of settling in South Australia and passed on to Melbourne, to our great loss.

It so happened that I made a short excursion north, and returned a few days after he had published his description. I left Adelaide on a recently purchased horse; fresh, and fit for a long journey, with the intention of meeting a large herd of cattle, supposed to have arrived on the River Murray by that time, and to be near the North West Bend. I started by way of Mount Barker. In that district I met a horseman who told me that the party had arrived, and were about to leave the river much nearer the North West Bend than the usual track.

On receiving this information I turned north, and passed Mount Torrens on my right hand, and following down a gully on a native track through high grass and herbage, the day being oppressively hot, with a burning sun shining on me, my pace being slow, I saw something glisten in the narrow path, my horse at the same time making a violent start.

I then observed a large black snake gliding away. My horse commenced to tremble violently. On dismounting, I conjectured correctly that the snake had struck the poor animal in the breast. A streaming perspiration soon broke out, and I felt I had no time to lose, as the nearest and only place I could reach was a temporary station at Mount Crawford. With some difficulty I reached that place, but the venom had spread so rapidly, and the bite was so near the vital parts, that nothing could save the poor beast. I need hardly say that the reptile escaped, as before I could reach it the creature had plunged into a deep water-hole in the river which I had just reached, and passed out of my sight under the shelving bank. I never before or since saw a larger snake. The heads of the kangaroo grass almost meeting across the narrow track must have prevented the horse seeing the reptile, which, I suppose, was passing on its way to the water.

I found I could only borrow a stale horse, not yet recovered from a long overland journey, but I was thankful for even such a one. Next morning I started, leaving my poor beast to die, as I afterwards heard he died that day. I was surprised he lingered so long, as the swelling of his chest was very great.

I had little hopes of meeting the party I was in search of, on such a brute as I was now mounted on. Leaving Mount Crawford I turned west and passed through the beautiful hills and gullies, and over the ground now known as Pewsey Vale, and descended by a rich spur of the ranges, having ridden continuously through miles of high grass. Arrived at the foot of the ranges I bore up a little north and continued to pass over good grazing and well-watered country. On making a dairy station I remained for the night.

The following day I continued to pass through good country, and crossed the River Light and saw some large and deep waterholes. This day, also, I rode over nothing but a well-watered, richly-grassed country, with occasional patches of scrub and gentle rises, principally clothed with sheaoak. I followed up the upper part of the Dirty Light and passed over a saddle on the western side of which I discovered the Black Springs, as they are now called, to the north of which I rode onto high ground.

From the highest part I could look around me and see what promised to be a magnificent country, as far as the eye could reach. I was particularly struck by the appearance of the lofty hills far to the north and came to the conclusion that the good land extended particularly in that direction.

I discovered at a distance a large party of blacks encamped, so I decided that discretion was the better part of valor. I camped on the Dirty Light for the night, and next day felt bound to return home as well as I could, generally driving or leading my over-tired and weak horse. I was fortunate before I reached Gawler Town in being able to obtain a fresh steed, and arrived in Adelaide after being out five days.

I was then surprised on reading Mr. Eyre's report, so generally condemning the Northern country; however, my report privately given was followed by Horrock's, Hill, and others exploring northwards and excellent stations were shortly taken up by fortunate parties who went out to judge for themselves These parties first established sheep and cattle stations in the country I had viewed, and have been followed and in part displaced by a large army of agricultural invaders, who have gone out boldly to conquer the difficulties to be encountered in this condemned country.

As an old colonist I however fear that their necessities will in too many instances force them to adopt the exhaustive system of cropping, which has for the time despoiled some, I may say all, of our best and earliest settled districts. I may be allowed here to express my opinion that had the Government under the credit system bound the tenants not to take off the land more than one crop of wheat in three years it would in the end have been better for the country, although it might have lessened the quantity of land disposed of under the credit system; a principle I admit next best, if placed under proper regulations, to granting long leases in lieu of alienating the freehold, supposing such long leases also with restrictions as to cultivations and in blocks of not less than two square miles.

I greatly fear that the present system, which is lauded up as such a great improvement on the 80 acre system, will, in like manner, come to grief, as practical men must know that the present limited holdings forbid the mixed system of management from being carried out successfully.

But I must stay my hand, as I feel I have gone into express opinions as to the future prospects, and left the descriptions of what has occurred in the past. At all events, after all the mistakes and accidents which were calculated to arrest the prosperity of my adopted country, I have lived long enough to have seen my early anticipations of it fulfilled; so I may be pardoned for digressing.

Amongst the trials the earl arrivals had to endure was the circumstance that these who came out first with 80-acres acre orders had to wait as I have already explained, until the 134-acre orders had been exercised, when all the best land and the good waters were taken up in the central districts. Now one of the crying evils of absenteeism hereby created may be seen in the sections around the city, which are let at £1 an acre and upwards----the cost having been only 12s. an acre, with one town acre given in to each section.

Further, all improvements, as fencing, buildings, &c., having been made, I believe, in all cases at the cost of the tenants, not to mention local taxes also paid by them. And these absentee landholders, whether private individuals or a Company, have up to this time escaped all contributions towards cost of Government in protection, and improvements by roads, bridges, &c., increasing the value of their properties. It appears strange that taxpayers have not before this devised a scheme to reach these fortunate property holders. I think it may be accounted for from the circumstance that so many agents for absentees and Bank directors are returned as members in the two Houses of Parliament.

The early purchasers of land in common experienced an act of injustice in the withdrawal of the mile of pasturage to each section promised under the original land orders, which privilege was soon withdrawn on the substitution of the delusive commonage provided under the District Councils Act, no proportionate reserve from sale being set apart, but on the contrary, every good acre of land, as well as inferior lands, being from time to time sold, until the deceptive bait of commonage in many districts has been blotted out, and the necessity created of abandoning homesteads and sections to capitalists having the means to correct the errors of pushing the principle of concentration of population too far, as was originally done, in a country and climate where such a principle has proved a calamity to many industrious and respectable families of small means.

It is argued that time rectifies all these mistakes; but then at the cruel injury of quiet people, who cling to a home with natural and commendable tenacity to the last. The rule of making land a mere trading commodity is bad in morals, and should not have been so universally adopted by successive Governments in these colonies. It is to be hoped that the area system, with deferred payments, will check the emigration in future of the country population, and that a mixed system will by degrees be adopted of sufficiently large areas, as by no other course of management can the metropolis and the central districts be supplied with prime meat, at a moderate price, as a rule, in the varieties of seasons we are subject to.

The fluctuations we have experienced in the price and quality of butcher's meat have been injurious in the extreme. The small holdings, at first the rule, have also led to the enormous sums of money which have been expended lately in the purchase of imported draught horses, to the benefit of Victoria and Tasmania, which evil, however, is not likely to be continued, as the farmers, with the, increased size of holdings now obtainable, will so many of them become breeders of that description of stock as in all probability to produce a glut in the market. The holders of leased runs at a distance, and of a large size, will now necessarily become sellers of store sheep, which may be brought down before shearing, and sold to the farmers in the areas; acting as wool carriers to the advantage of all parties, and ultimately to the public at large, when fattened on the extended farms in the areas.