FOUNDATION OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
+Source.+--Six Months in the new Colony of South Australia (J. Horton
James, 1839), pp. 1, 28-37
The settlement of South Australia was undertaken to test
Wakefield's theory; but instead of turning their land to good
account the colonists left it idle, hoping to sell at a high price.
The result was disastrous.
SITUATION AND EXTENT
The New Province, called South Australia, which, by an Act of the
Imperial Parliament, was erected into a free British colony on 15th
August, 1834, is situate on the South Coast of the Great Island
Continent of New Holland, in the Southern or Indian Ocean, extending
from 132 deg. to 141 deg. E. longitude, and from 38 deg. to 26 deg. S. latitude, and
contains nearly two hundred millions of acres. It is twelve thousand
miles distant from Great Britain.
This distance of twelve thousand miles ought to be performed by a fast
sailing ship in twelve weeks, at the rate of a thousand miles per week,
which is the fair average running of a good ship on distant voyages; but
it is better to allow something for light winds and calms near the
Equator, and to say in round numbers one hundred days in all, which is
rather more than fourteen weeks.
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