unable to pay for it, but fees can be enforced in all
cases where inability to pay them has not been proved. Large grants have
been made by the legislature for school buildings, teachers' salaries,
etc., in order to efficiently aid in the development of a thorough and
comprehensive system of education for the young.

South Australia has a goodly number of schools for higher education, and
it also has a university which is well attended. The majority of those
who can afford it send their children to private schools rather than to
the government ones, believing, and no doubt correctly, that the
educational facilities are greater in the private institutions than in
the public ones.

CHAPTER VII.

ADELAIDE TO MELBOURNE--THE RABBIT PEST--DANGEROUS EXOTICS.

The distance from Adelaide to Melbourne is about six hundred miles. Our
friends found that the journey was made very leisurely, the trains
averaging not more then eighteen or twenty miles an hour. For quite a
distance out of Adelaide the train ascends an incline as far as Mount
Lofty station, where the hill or mountain of that name is situated. On
the way up the last of the incline our friends watched with a great deal
of interest the plains stretching out below them, and the city which
they had just left lying at their feet like a section of carpet laid off
into ornamental squares. Beyond Mount Lofty station the route descended
into the valley of the Murray River, whose waters could be seen winding
like a thread through the yellow soil.

"This is the longest river in Australia, is it not?" queried Ned.

"Yes," replied the doctor, "it is the longest and largest river, and, as
you have already learned, it is the only one that remains a real river
throughout the year. Its mouth is not many miles from Adelaide, and a
considerable part of its course is through South Australia."

"I wonder they didn't establish the capital city at the mouth of the
Murray," remarked Harry; "they would have had the advantage of a
navigable stream, which they have not in the present location."

"Yes, that is quite true," Dr. Whitney replied; "and they would have
illustrated the saying of a philosopher, that great rivers nearly always
run past large cities, but there was a practical difficulty in the way,
of which you are not aware."

"What is it?"

"The Murray at its mouth has a bar that is very difficult and dangerous
to cross, and a large area at its entrance consists of sha