ich I could scarcely share. The journey, by sea, takes about 48
hours; that is, from Port Philip Heads (the entrance to Melbourne
Harbour) to Port Adelaide, and the steamers run twice a-week from
each end. Soon there will be direct railway communication between
Melbourne and Adelaide, but at present the land journey takes three
days, and is much more expensive, as a good deal of it has to be
done by coaching. The large mail steamers from Europe of the P. & O.
and Orient lines stop for a few hours off Glenelg (about seven miles
from Adelaide), to land the mails and cargo; but the intercolonial
and other steamers come up, by a long detour, to Port Adelaide,
which is also about seven miles from the city; but here they come
alongside the wharf. Some of the other colonies have been utilized
as penal settlements, or rather begun as such. South Australia was
founded consciously and deliberately in 1836. No convict is allowed
to land, and a tax of L10 is imposed on every Chinese. The site of
Adelaide was chosen for that of the capital. From Port Adelaide to
Adelaide the rail runs through a level tract, and the city itself is
placed in the centre of a plain, bounded by hills on the north and
east at about six miles distance. South Australia appears to be
named on the _lucus a non lucendo_ principle, because, as a fact,
almost the whole of South Australia is to the north of Victoria;
and, since 1863, it stretches right across the continent to the
north coast of Australia, which is far away into the tropics.
Indeed, this northern territory seems to be tacked on to South
Australia, because it is not yet of sufficient importance to have a
government of its own, and it is difficult to know what to do with
it. It is separated by an enormous tract of country, and has nothing
in common with South Australia proper. The Bishop told me he
supposed he should have to make a visitation through it. If in time
this district of the north becomes more populous, it is probable it
will set up for itself, just as there have long been agitations for
separating Northern Queensland from the Southern portion, and the
Riverina from New South Wales, on the ground that their particular
interests are not sufficiently represented at Brisbane and Sydney
respectively.

The population of the whole of South Australia is now about 318,000,
that of Adelaide and its suburbs being about 70,000. Adelaide is not
only by far the largest town, but almost the only town