A telegram from Melbourne to San Francisco covers approximately 20,000 miles—­the equivalent of five-sixths of the way around the globe.  It has to halt along the way a good many times and be repeated; still, but little time is lost.  These halts, and the distances between them, are here tabulated.—­[From “Round the Empire.” (George R. Parkin), all but the last two.]

Miles.

Melbourne-Mount Gambier,.......300
Mount Gambier-Adelaide,........270
Adelaide-Port Augusta,.........200
Port Augusta-Alice Springs...1,036
Alice Springs-Port Darwin,.....898
Port Darwin-Banjoewangie,... 1,150
Banjoewangie-Batavia,..........480
Batavia-Singapore,.............553
Singapore-Penang,..............399
Penang-Madras,...............1,280
Madras-Bombay,.................650
Bombay-Aden,.................1,662
Aden-Suez,...................1,346
Suez-Alexandria,...............224
Alexandria-Malta,..............828
Malta-Gibraltar,.............1,008
Gibraltar-Falmouth,..........1,061
Falmouth-London,...............350
London-New York,.............2,500
New York-San Francisco,......3,500

I was in Adelaide again, some months later, and saw the multitudes gather in the neighboring city of Glenelg to commemorate the Reading of the Proclamation—­in 1836—­which founded the Province.  If I have at any time called it a Colony, I withdraw the discourtesy.  It is not a Colony, it is a Province; and officially so.  Moreover, it is the only one so named in Australasia.  There was great enthusiasm; it was the Province’s national holiday, its Fourth of July, so to speak.  It is the pre-eminent holiday; and that is saying much, in a country where they seem to have a most un-English mania for holidays.  Mainly they are workingmen’s holidays; for in South Australia the workingman is sovereign; his vote is the desire of the politician—­indeed, it is the very breath of the politician’s being; the parliament exists to deliver the will of the workingman, and the government exists to execute it.  The workingman is a great power everywhere in Australia, but South Australia is his paradise.  He has had a hard time in this world, and has earned a paradise.  I am glad he has found it.  The holidays there are frequent enough to be bewildering to the stranger.  I tried to get the hang of the system, but was not able to do it.

You have seen that the Province is tolerant, religious-wise.  It is so politically, also.  One of the speakers at the Commemoration banquet—­the Minister of Public Works-was an American, born and reared in New England.  There is nothing narrow about the Province, politically, or in any other way that I know of.  Sixty-four religions and a Yankee cabinet minister.  No amount of horse-racing can damn this community.