A pathetic incident accompanied the laying-out of this beautiful city. After the surveyor, Colonel William Light, had selected the site and surveyed the streets his plan was ridiculed by his fellow colonists. Being of a sensitive nature, their criticisms and jibes so worried him that he found relief from taunts in an early grave. In Victoria Square stands a splendid bronze monument to the designer of Adelaide, with this brief inscription chiseled out of the granite base: "Light."
Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, has a population of 200,000. Its wide streets and great park space make the area as large as that usually required for a city of half a million.
An agricultural college, mining college, and other means of popular education insures a high percentage of intellectual attainment. The same splendid public school system that has been touched on as existing in West Australia and Victoria is maintained by both the municipal and State educational departments here. Money for educational purposes is voted to an almost reckless degree by the States of the Commonwealth.
The homes of the people of Adelaide are fine. Where they are not entirely built of stone, there is at least a stone front and brick side walls. The houses are mostly one story, containing from five to seven rooms, with a veranda on each and flowers in every yard. Most of these homes are owned by the families who occupy them, but some rent at from $3.50 to $4.50 weekly. "Poor," "slum" and "wealthy" residential distinctions are pleasantly absent in Australian cities.
The botanical garden, zoo, museum, State and municipal buildings, business blocks, the lighting and street railway systems are all very good. The ambition of the Australian seems to aspire to the best, as little of a shoddy character is in evidence. The statues about the cities also are as good as one will see the world over. The stores and shops compare with any for quality and attractiveness.
Ordinary meals could be had for 25 cents, and comfortable accommodation, with good food, was obtainable in any of the cities for $1.50 a day.
The bird life of the country adds to its attractiveness. The emu, next in size to the ostrich, is on his native heath, and the lyre bird is a native of Australia, too. In the "bush," as the woods of Australia are termed, revel the cockatoo, macaw, parrots of different species; the kookooburra, or laughing jackass, and the smart magpie are quite numerous. Australians are very proud of the native birds. Chasing the emu on horseback is a sport indulged in in some sections.
The English sparrow was taken to Australia by settlers from the British Isles, and he has proved a source of annoyance to the people of that country, as well as that of others. Another bird imported from England, the starling, a very dirty and destructive one to berries, is also an eyesore to the people. This bird is numerous in Adelaide. Rabbits were unknown in Australia before settlers from the North made that country their home. Being very destructive to crops, large sums of money are expended to build rabbit-proof fences about tracts of farming land owing to the millions of these creatures that infest the country. The moderate climate admits of perpetual breeding. Australians do not eat rabbit meat.
The rabbit trapper of Australia is an independent sort of a citizen. His disposition is akin to that of the fellow who will sit on a log all day to catch a six-inch fish, and considers his time well spent when he walks into his home, carrying his quarry by a spear of long grass pulled through the vent in the gills. Ships loaded with frozen rabbits leave Australian ports for England at frequent sailings.
The kangaroo is termed in Australia "the native," and is harmless when met with under any circumstances. The smaller specie is known as the wallaby. Kangaroo is the biggest game on the Australian continent. Its tail is the only part used as food, and then only for soup.