Conclusions ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 201 number of dairy cattle, and the area under vines, increased. As early as the forties the suitability of local soils for wine production was tested by several settlers. The South Australian Company sent vines to the Province in its first ships; in 1840 Mr. John Reynell planted a vineyard at Reynella, near Adelaide ; and in 1846 Mr. Piitrick Auld formed the nucleus of the Auldana Vineyard. Thenceforth settlers here and there devoted some attention to wine-making. It was not, however, until the early seventies that any considerable export trade with England was carried on, and the vintage gradually increased from that time. The wine export in 1888 was valued at ;i 33,903, and in 1891 at ^58,664. The product in 1893 and 1894 was small, but in the following years new vineyards came into bearing, and in 1897 the highest export was attained — 1894, ^49,475 ; 1895, ^58,826; 1896, ^73.316; 1897, ^82,553; 1898, ^78,381; and 1899, ^77,773— showing that local vineyards are likely to prove substantial sources of wealth. In addition to a poor harvest and low prices in 1893, the people were made to suffer from other causes, which had their origin outside the bounds of the Province. A land boom in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1890, had attracted a large number of people from South Australia, as well as from the other colonies, and, because of the greater magnitude of the operations, the re-action in that colony was more severe than in the case of previous incidents of the kind. Victoria was intensely depressed, and public and private institutions were soon in financial difficulties. Over and above this, depression was general from north to south and east to we.st of Australia, excepting in Western Australia, where phenomenal gold discoveries had been made. No period in Australian history ecjualled this in financial embarrassment, and the climax was not long in arriving. In the eighties much jirivation was caused in Adelaitle by the collapse of the local Commercial Bank. Just when the liquidators were finally settling the accounts of that unfortunate institution, the Federal Bank closed its doors. Then a financial cataclysm, starting in Tasmania and Victoria, deluged the whole of Australia. The enormous operations in land in Melbourne, and the risky and unscientific business that had been carried on by banking institutions there and elsewhere, culminated in a crisis unparalleled in the Southern Hemisphere. The failure of one or two small financial houses caused a grim rush on every great intercolonial banking company, and one after another had to close its doors for the purpose of re-construction. Nothing could stem the wave of fear which seized upon depositors. Within a few weeks of the Eastertide of 1893 (according to one statement) 12 banks suspended payment, involving ^8,735,950 of capital,
- ^4,596,C)00 reserves, ^78,611,801 deposits, ^11,456,433 coin and bullion, and ^80,980,728
advances. Very many who had thought themselves wealthy were reduced to absolute poverty, and the ruin was deep and wide. As after-events proved, the losses were not so great as would appear in the figures. The important institutions that had suspended payment resumed business. Weakly institutions, that had been a delusion and a snare, were dredged away, and the financial streams were cleared. The crisis and the depression established colonial
