[156] During the first six months of 1841, seventy vessels, comprising a burden of 11,139 tons, arrived at Port Adelaide. See Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. 2, p. 114. The capital of the province of South Australia bears the honoured name of Adelaide, and is placed upon the eastern side of the Gulf of St. Vincent. The country around it is hilly and well timbered, but not too thickly encumbered with wood, and the soil is generally good, with abundance of water. The British settlers removed to this spot from Kangaroo Island, which is at the entrance of Gulf St. Vincent, but which they found less desirable for a colony from the difficulty and expense of clearing away the timber there. Adelaide is supposed to be well and centrally placed for the capital of a province, and it now has a good port,[157] to which vessels of four or five hundred tons may come and discharge their cargoes. [157] Here again reports differ. See Mr. T. Driver's Evidence before the Committee on South Australia, p. 221, Answer, 2498, and _following ones_. The town stands on gently rising banks, between which flows a pretty stream, named the Torrens, and commands a view of an extensive plain, reaching down to the sea, over which the fresh breezes generally blow from the south-west. Behind Adelaide is a fine wooded country, and six miles distant is a range of hills, with the wooded summit of Mount Lofty forming their highest point. The population of the capital of South Australia and its immediate neighbourhood, is supposed to be about eight thousand. The town has not yet many buildings or establishments of any importance, but there is a hospital, and also a savings' bank, in which last, during six months of 1841, the deposits had increased from 130_l._ 0_s._ 2_d._ to 520_l._ 2_s._ 10_d._ It had _four_ newspapers and _one_ colonial chaplain in 1842, and the estimates for that year contained the following items:--Police, 9112_l._ 19_s._ 4_d._; jail, 1034_l._ 8_s._; colonial chaplain, 370_l._ But we must do the colony of South Australia the justice to state that this is not the whole sum which is there spent on religious instruction. The voluntary system, as it is called, has been brought into action there, and hitherto, it would appear, successfully enough, so far as pounds, shillings, and pence are concerned, if it be true that in four years,--the four first years of the colony,--upwards of 11,500_l._ had been voluntarily contributed for religious and educational purposes, and "the clergy," (as all teachers are now denominated,) supported at an annual charge of 1200_l._ But, of course, the voluntary principle, as its name implies, is a little apt to be _wilful_; and, accordingly, in Adelaide alone, with a population of eight thousand souls, it is stated that there are ten or twelve public "places of worship," and a corresponding number of "zealous, highly-educated, and efficient clergymen." Every settler apportions his