SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 490, 15 July 1857, Page 4

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

Under the heading of the. ' Magnetic Telegraph,' the ' Register,' of May 20, writes—" Mr. Todd has returned from his overland trip, having satisfactorily accomplished the purpose of the journey.. He has pegged out the line for the telegraph along the whole of the route^to its junction with the Victorian line near the mouth of the Glenelg. The contractors, it appears, are actively engaged in putting up the posts at-the" Adelaide end of the line, and the distance between the city and the Goolwa will probably be completed and ready for use before the end of the present year, by which time, no doubt, the magnetic instruments will have been received from America. Parties are employed in different portions of the route in making preparations for setting up the posts, but it is feared that along the swampy parts of the line nothing can be done until after the winter. Much of the timber, we understand, will be supplied from Tasmania, under a contract entered into by Mr. Hinckley. It will be landed on the coast at spots most convenient for the purposes of Messrs. Thompson, the contractors for erecting the line of telegraph. The Victorian portion of the line is laid, out so as to serve when necessary as a road, eighty feet in breadth; but on our side of the border no such contingency has been kept in view. This circumstance will partially account for the greater cost per mile j of the Victorian telegraph, in comparison ■with that of South Australia." In the ' Register' of May 20, we find the following remarks on the report of the Destitute Board :—" The last number of the ! ' Government Gazette' contained the halfyearly report of the Destitute Board. The number of recipients of relief has been considerably less during the past half-year than it, was during the half-year preceding —a circumstance to which the Relieving Officer very properly alludes in terms of congratulation. The ill effects of the excesive female immigration of 1835-6 have now to a great extent passed away, and a constant demand exists for female servants. The report adds the gratifying fact that during the past half-year no ablebodied immigrant has sought relief from the Board —a tolerably conclusive test as to the present state of the labour market. The Board report that in consequence of the more moderate price of provisions, many widows and deserted mothers, formerly dependent upon the Board for assistance, have now found means to support themselves by their own efforts, whilst in o.ther cases, where it continues to be needful to give relief, a" smaller amount of relief has been found adequate to the occasion." The Begister of May 20 says :—"We1 understand that the Emigration Commissioners have written to Mr. Labouchere, begging that he would request the Government of South Australia to relieve them from the duty of further selecting emigrants for this colony, in consequence of the dissatisfaction of the colonists with their services." Convicts prom Western Atjsteaxia.—----j A bill is now passing through the South Australian Legislature, by the provisions of which any person coming from Western Australia is forbidden to land in any of the ports or other places of South Australia without proof of being a free person ; and any convict entering the latter colony subjects himself to three years' imprisonment and labour in irons.