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THE FOUNDING OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

those now theories, the rotten basis on which that colony was founded, and without hesitation gave up all thought of settling there, and unreservedly adopted the principles of colonisation as laid down by Wakefield.

To a man of Gouger's energy, to see a thing as practicable was to set to work and prove it, and as the subject of colonisation had for a long time past been an absorbing theme with him, he now made it the business of his life. Fortune favoured him. A band of intending colonists who had been impressed with the soundness of Wakefield's arguments in favour of the American plan of selling waste land instead of jobbing it according to the English plan, placed themselves in communication with Mr. Gouger, whose name had begun to be associated with every movement in favour of emigration.

He saw that any attempt to aid these intending colonists single-handed must be abortive, and that the only present assistance he could render them would be to influence public opinion, and to form provisional committees of influential men to take steps for the foundation of new colonies. But Wakefield's doctrine was as yet a novelty, and was being fiercely opposed by some, ridiculed by others, and, as if by common consent, ignored by the Colonial Department of the State.

Nevertheless, Gouger succeeded in calling general attention to the subject, and in forming two or three provisional committees. But that was all. "When the storm of controversy set in, several well-known men, who had given a quali-