Page:The Irish in Australia.djvu/209

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CHAPTER X.


FOUR OF THE FAMILY.


SOUTH AUSTRALIA—A NOVEL EXPERIMENT IN COLONISATION—RICH COPPER MINES—WHEAT-GROWING CAPABILITIES—IRISH EMIGRATION TO SOUTH AUSTRALIA—ADDRESS OF ST. PATRICK'S SOCIETY TO THEIR COUNTRYMEN AT HOME—WESTERN AUSTRALIA—ITS IMMENSE EXTENT AND UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES—THE LAST OF THE PENAL SETTLEMENTS—FENIAN EXILES—JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY—J. K. CASEY—DR. R. R. MADDEN, COLONIAL SECRETARY— TASMANIA—ITS EARLY DEGRADATION—ITS DELIGHTFUL SCENERY—THE TRANSPORTED MEN OF '48—SMITH O'BRIEN—THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER—TERENCE BELLEW McMANUS—JOHN MITCHEL—JOHN MARTIN—KEVIN IZOD O'DOHERTY—NEW ZEALAND—MAORI WARS—CAREER OF TE KOOTI—A COURAGEOUS IRISHWOMAN—ACTIVITY AND ENTERPRISE IN THE COLONY—MINERAL WEALTH—LIBERAL IMMIGRATION POLICY—IRISH SETTLEMENT IN THE ISLANDS.


So much of what has been said in previous chapters, concerning the progress of colonisation in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, and the concurrent advance of the Irish citizens of these states, applies with equal force and truth to the other four colonies in the Australasian dominion, that, to avoid recapitulation, it will be most convenient to place South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand under a general heading, and regard them as forming an harmonious family group at the antipodes. The colony of South Australia was founded almost simultaneously with Victoria, but in a far different manner. In 1836 an English enthusiast, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, propounded a new and fantastical scheme of colonisation, which, as is usually the case, attracted many by its novelty