r, the man died, and one by one the women
disappeared, till at last with the death of Truganina in 1877 the race
became extinct.

CHAPTER XX.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA, 1850-1890.

#1. Temporary Decline.#--In 1851 the prosperity of South Australia was
somewhat dimmed by the discovery of gold in Victoria; for, before the
middle of the following year, the colony was deserted by a very large
proportion of its male inhabitants. The copper mines were with
difficulty worked, for want of men; the fields were uncultivated, the
sheep untended, and the colony experienced a short period of rapid
decline. However, the results obtained on the goldfields by most of
these fortune-seekers were hardly to be compared with the steady yield
of the fertile cornfields and rich copper mines of South Australia; and
the majority of those who had thus abandoned the colony returned in a
short time to their families and their former employments.

Governor Young adroitly turned the discovery of gold to the advantage of
his own colony by establishing an escort between Bendigo and Adelaide;
and, as this was remarkably well equipped, many of the diggers sent
their gold by this route rather than to Melbourne, thus giving to South
Australia some of the advantages of a gold-producing country. The crowds
of people rushing to the goldfields had carried with them nearly all the
coins of the colony; and the banks, although they had plenty of rough
gold, were yet unable, from scarcity of coined money, to meet the
demands upon them. In this emergency, Sir Henry Young took the extreme
and somewhat illegal step of instituting a new currency, consisting of
gold cast into small bars or ingots; and, although afterwards mildly
censured by the Home Government for exceeding his powers, yet he could
justly assert that this measure had saved the colony from serious
commercial disaster.

But South Australia was still more benefited by the great market opened
for its flour and wheat among the vast crowds on the goldfields; and,
when the first period of excitement was over, it was found that the
colony was, at any rate, not a loser by the success of its neighbours.

#2. The Real Property Act.#--In 1858 South Australia took the lead in a
reform which is now being adopted by nearly all the civilised nations of
the world. According to English law, each time an estate was transferred
from one person to another, a deed had to be made out for the purpose;
and if changes