market the goldfields offered for their surplus stock.  Our South Australian farmers left their holdings in the hands of their wives and children too young to take with them, but almost all of them returned to grow grain and produce to send to Victoria.  It was astonishing what the women had done during their absence.  The fences were kept repaired and the stock attended to, the grapes gathered, and the wine made.  In these days it was not so easy to get 80 acres or more in Victoria; so, with what the farmers brought from their labours on the goldfields, they extended their holdings and improved their homes.  For many years the prices in Melbourne regulated prices in Adelaide, but when the land was unlocked and the Victorian soil and climate were found to be as good as ours it was Mark lane that fixed prices over all Australia for primary products.  After the return of most of the diggers there was a great deal of marrying and giving in marriage.  The miners who had left the Burra for goldseeking gradually came back, and the nine remarkable copper mines of Moonta and Wallaroo attracted the Cornishmen, who preferred steady wages and homes to the diminishing chances of Ballarat and Bendigo where machinery and deep sinking demanded capital, and the miners were paid by the week.  These new copper mines were found in the Crown leases held by Capt. (afterwards Sir Walter) Hughes.  He had been well dealt with by Elder, Smith, & Co., and gave them the opportunity of supporting him.  At that time my friends Edward Stirling and John Taylor were partners in that firm, and they shared in the success.  Mr. Bakewell belonged to the legal firm which did their business, so that my greatest friends seemed to be in it.  I think my brother John profited less by the great advance of South Australia than he deserved for sticking to the Bank of South Australia.  He got small rises in his salary, but the cost of living was so enhanced that at the end of seven years it did not buy much more than the 100 pounds he had begun with.  My eldest maiden aunt died, and left to her brother and sister in South Australia all she had in her power.  My mother bought a brick cottage in Pulteney street and a Burra share with her legacy—­both excellent investments—­and my brother left the bank and went into the aerated water business with James Hamilton Parr.

We made the acquaintance of the family of Mrs. Francis Clark, of Hazelwood, Burnside.  She was the only sister of five clever brothers—­ Matthew Davenport, Rowland, Edwin, Arthur, and Frederick Hill.  Rowland is best known, but all were remarkable men.  She was so like my mother in her sound judgment, accurate observation, and kind heart, that I was drawn to her at once.  But it was Miss Clark who sought an introduction to me at a ball, because her uncle Rowland had written to her that “Clara Morison,” the new novel, was a capital story of South Australian life.  She was the first person to seek me out on account of literary work, and I was grateful to