Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/153

The Producers ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 127 As is not uncommon, the sufferers attacked the Government. They asked that the Ministry should be removed from office, and inveighed in heated terms on a vote of ^2,000 for immigration, which one resolution at a public meeting excitedly denounced as "a policy wanting in humanity, insulting to the understanding of the meanest capacity, likely to compromise the present peace and order of the community, and opposed to the future prosperity of the Colony." A deputation waited on Sir Richard MacDonnell, who thus expressed himself regarding assisted immigration : — " In my opinion the want of the Colony is the want most felt by all new countries worth inhabiting, namely, more people to inhabit it and cultivate the soil. The way to make the country wealthy is not necessarily by stopping the influx of people. I have never known immigration, well conducted, to interfere with legitimate wages ; but, on the other hand, an influx of inhabitants, unattended with a corresponding influx of capital, is not, I admit, the way to promote the healthy and prosperous settlement of any country." MooNTA Mines The crisis, as it was bound to do, adjusted itself without the intervention of Parliament or the Government. After the lean years came years of plenty, and in each successive season the area under cultivation was increased. An abundant harvest is a remedy for most ills in South Australia, and in the early sixties prosperity returned to city and country. The area cultivated in 1858-9 was 264,452 acres, of which 188,703 acres were under wheat. The yield from the latter was 2,109,544 bushels, averaging i i bushels i r lbs. per acre. Occasionally red rust or a dry spring injured the crops, but the returns were never .seriously affected until 1867-8, by which time a dry cycle with low prices had again made its appearance. In 1866-7 '^h^ ^^^^^ cultivated had risen to 739,714 acres, with 457,628 acres under wheat, yielding an average of 14 bushels 20 lbs. per acre. The total area cultivated in 1867-8 was 810,734 acres, including 550,456 acres of wheat, from which the return was 4 bushels 20 lbs. per acre. The cost of cultivating wheat in the Province, comparable with most countries, is low, and the profits are therefore more substantial than