SMELTING WORKS.
The copper ore raised in the South Australian mines has been principally sent to Swansea. As there is a considerable demand for copper in India and China, it became an object to refine the ore in South Australia. With this view an immense capital has been sunk in establishing several copper-smelting companies, but hitherto with moderate success, in consequence of the scarcity of fuel. Coal has not yet been discovered, therefore the smelters were dependent on wood or imported coal. According to experience in Norway, a large forest is soon consumed by the demands of a smelting establishment. The most extensive smelting works, late the property of Messrs. Schneider, have unfortunately been planted close to the Burra mine, where wood is scarce, and where four tons of coal must be carted up for every ton of ore. The proper site would have been at or near a port.
The necessity of transporting coal imported from England, or from the Newcastle of New South Wales, has called into use Port Wakefield, a creek at the head of St. Vincent's Gulf, forming the embouchure of the River Wakefield. The intervening country between the Burra and Port Wakefield, a distance of about thirty miles, is composed partly of undulating hills and partly over flat land well adapted for heavy carriage. No doubt had the smelting works continued in full operation, a tramway would have been attempted over this line.
Mining, agriculture, and pastoral pursuits have been the principal investments of the South Australian colonists. The number of sheep grazing was about one-sixth of that of the Port Phillip district. Fat cattle are driven over from Portland Bay to Rivoli Bay for South Australian consumption.
South Australia is at present under a cloud, but the depression can only be temporary. A genial sun, a fertile soil, a healthy climate, with sheep, cattle, English colonists, and a Burra Burra mine, cannot but produce good fruits, although the dreams of empire of newly-fledged legislators may scarcely be realised.
