SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.  See TRANSVAAL.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA (320), second largest of the five colonies of Australia, stretches N. and S. in a broad band, 1850 in. long, through the heart of the continent from the Southern Ocean to the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Arafura Sea, having Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria on the E., and Western Australia on the W.; ten times the size of Great Britain, but the greater portion comprises the Northern Territory, which consists, save a low alluvial coastal strip, of parched and uninhabited tableland.  South Australia proper begins about 26 deg.  S. latitude, and is traversed southwards by the Finke River as far as Eyre Lake (3706 sq. m.), by the Flinders Range, and the lower Murray River in the E., and diversified here and there by low ranges and Lake Amadeus (NW.), Torrens and Gairdner (S.); the S. coast is penetrated by the great gulfs of Spencer and St. Vincent, round and to the N. and E. of which the bulk of the population is gathered in a region not much larger than Scotland; is the chief wheat-growing colony, and other important industries are mining (chiefly copper), sheep-rearing, and wine-making; chief exports, wool, wheat, and copper; the railway and telegraph systems are well developed, the Overland Telegraph Line (1973 m.) stretching across the continent from Adelaide to Port Darwin being a marvel of engineering enterprise.  Adelaide is the capital.  The governor is appointed by the crown, and there are a legislative council or upper house, and an assembly or lower house.  State education is free.  Began to be settled in 1836, and five years later became a Crown colony.

SOUTH SEA BUBBLE, the name given to the disastrous financial project set on foot by HARLEY (q. v.) to relieve the national debt and restore public credit, which produced an unparalleled rush of speculation, ending in the ruin of thousands of people.  Through the efforts of Harley a company of merchants was induced in 1711 to buy up the floating national debt of L10,000,000 on a government guarantee of 6 per cent. interest, and a right to a monopoly of trade in the South Seas.  The shares rose by leaps and bounds as tales of the fabulous wealth of the far South Seas circulated, till, in 1720, L200 shares were quoted at L1000; earlier in the same year the company had taken over the entire national debt of upwards of 30 millions.  In the craze for speculation which had seized the public hundreds of wild schemes were floated.  At length the “Bubble” burst.  The chairman and several directors of the company sold out when shares had reached L1000; suspicion followed, confidence vanished, stock fell, and in a few days thousands from end to end of the country were bewailing their ruin.  The private estates of the fraudulent directors were confiscated for the relief of the sufferers.  To Sir Robert Walpole belongs the credit of extricating the finances of the country from the muddle into which they had fallen.