minutes and proceedings of the South Australian Literary Society, in
the years 1831-5. As the province was non-existent at that time, this
cultivation of literature seems premature, but the members, 40 in
number, were its founders, and pending the passage of the Bill by the
Imperial Parliament, they met fortnightly in London to discuss its
prospects, and to read papers on exploration and on matters of future
development and government. The first paper was on education for the
new land, and was read by Richard Davies Hanson. The South Australian
Company and Mr. George Fife Angas came to the rescue by buying a
considerable area of land and making up the amount of capital which was
required. It is interesting to note that the casting vote in the House
of Lords which decided that the province of South Australia should come
into existence was given by the Duke of Wellington. Adelaide was to
have been called Wellington, but somehow the Queen Consort's name
carried the day. The name of the conquerer of Waterloo is immortalized
in the capital of the Dominion of New Zealand, in the North Island,
which, like South Australia, was founded on the Wakefield principle of
selling land for money to be applied for immigration. The 40 signatures
in the records of the South Australian Literary Society are most
interesting to an old colonist like myself, and the names of many of
them are perpetuated in those of our rivers and our streets:--Torrens,
Wright, Brown, Gilbert, Gouger, Hanson, Kingston, Wakefield, Morphett,
Childers, Hill (Rowland), Stephens, Mawn, Furniss, Symonds. The second
issue of The Register was printed in Adelaide. It was also The
Government Gazette. It gave the proclamation of the province, which was
made under the historic gum tree near Holdfast Bay, now Glenelg. It
also records the sales of the town acres which had not been allotted to
the purchasers of preliminary sections. These were of 134 acres, and a
town acre, at the price of 12/6 an acre. This was a temptation to
invest at the very first, because afterwards the price was 20/ an acre,