We have hitherto been speaking of the mines of South Australia as the sources of wealth, and as the sudden, if not the remote cause of the prosperity of that province.  It now becomes our duty to consider how far the discovery of the mines has benefited or interfered with the other branches of industry and sources of wealth; and as regards both these, it must be admitted that their discovery has had an injurious effect.  The high rate of wages given by the proprietors of mines, not only to the miners, but to all whom they employ, draws the labourers from every other occupation to engage with them.  The consequence has been a general want of labourers throughout the whole colony, still more severely felt by reason of the previous want of labour in the labour market.  Every man who could obtain sufficient money to purchase a dray and team of bullocks, hurried to the mines for a load of ore to take to the port, and disdained any ordinary employment when by carting ore he could earn 6 or 7 pounds in a fortnight.  The labourer was quite right in going where he received the best remuneration for his services; but the consequences were in many instances fatal to their former employers.  Many farmers were unable to put in seed or to cultivate their land; many, after having done so, were unable to gather it, and had it not been for the use of Mr. Ridley’s machine, the loss in the crops would have been severely felt.  Not only did the farmers suffer, but the stock-holders, and the colonists generally.  The want of hands, indeed, was felt by all classes of the community, since the natural consequence of the high wages given by the mining proprietors to the men they employed, tended still more to depress the labour market, and to increase the demand upon it by leading many of the more frugal labourers to purchase land with the money they were enabled to save.  As landed proprietors they not only withdrew their labour from the market, but in their turn became employers; but I feel called upon to say at the same time, that equal distress was felt in the neighbouring colonies for working hands, where no mines had been discovered, and where they could not therefore possibly have interfered.

From what has been said of the province of South Australia, and setting its mines entirely out of the question, the description that has been given of its pastoral and agricultural capabilities, of its climate, and of the prospects of success which present themselves to the intending emigrant, it will naturally be inferred that the impression I have intended to convey is, that, as a colony, it is most peculiarly adapted for a British population, whether rural or other.  The state of the colony is now such, that the way of the emigrant in landing is straight before him, for with honesty, sobriety, and industry, he cannot lose it.  When I stated, in a former part of my work, that I would not take upon myself to give advice, which if followed, and not successfully, might subject