SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 97, 4 July 1843, Page 4

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

SITUATION OF THE COLONISTS AND THEIR FUTURE POLICY. At this moment the circulating medium of this province is less than it has been at any time during the last four years. This startling fact, without a little explanation, is calculated to shake the nerves of the colony’s most Sanguine -friends, and we therefore intend very •shortly to explain why it is not to be considered, as in older countries, an indication of declining prosperity or of approaching .ruin; that, on the contrary, it -is to be considered, in more than one point of view, as the evidence of a sounder and more healthy state of affairs in the colony than many people, filled with the old country notions, are willing to believe. .Formerly, for instance, money was ' the universal medium—all wages were paid in money ; sheep, cattle, horses, and pigs, were all represented at first at high value by money, or by bills on which money was raised and circulated. The expenses of living were very high, and rents were enormous : these were all represented by money, which passed into the tills of the shopkeepers, and the pockets of the landlords, and was circulated. Now, it is true, everything is changed; but, we hope to show, riot in all cases, for the worse; money is not now always the medium of exchange. Many persons pay their servants’ wages principally in flour or other produce: this diminishes the circulation; but the people are not the worse off for that. The servants themselves have less wages, but then they have fewer expenses ; their expenditure is reduced in a greater proportion. The expenses of living are a mere trifle. This, while it diminishes the circulation, shows that the mass of the population can make themselves comfortable at a cheap rate. There are few articles imported, and fewer of luxury consumed. This . also diminishes the circulation, but proves that ■ the population are economical, and affords the ‘ best guarantee of returning prosperity. There - are now no payments of large sums to the generous overlanders, who kindly and freely circulated the same “ about town.” But, as the stockholders have not to bleed again for • their flocks and herds, we can well spare such .circulation. The exorbitant rents of nearly . 2,000 houses in Adelaide are no longer in circulation. 'The landlords only suffer for this ; the tenants are more comfortably housed in the • country and in town, ,at a fifth of the expense; sio that this circulation can' also be spared. It is therefore evident that the returns of a bank .are riot.the true pulse of a community. It is to be found in the resources of a country, and in the people’s own lia.bits, their industry, and -economy. Tn-.this view, South Australia is firm' as a rock: her situation is and has been , for nearly two years very trying and even critical, -but certainly not ifiore so' than numerous other •colonies successfully formed by British subjects. '.The difficulties of .many of the colonists are; .great, -and numbers are nearly overwhelmed •with the heavy engagements contracted at a ‘time when all seemed prosperous; but it would .certainly be wrong to repine because they canmot, with the proceeds 6f .one crop, put. themselves in a comfortable position. At home, •the farmer thinks himself extremely well off if he can, on an average of ten or twenty years, get a fair • interest on his capital, and some think themselves fortunate if their capital is not diminished. Here it is very frequently expected that the second year or the third should repay the outlay, arid many are excessively discontented', because, after having come some sixteen thousand miles, ,cruel fate has denied * theiri a

fortune in a few years.—- South Australian, Examiner. ... Human Strength. — The following anecdotes of the* power of the human frame, are from the. Family Library , by Sir David-Brews-ter, entitldd, “ Letters on Natural Magfe.” The feats which immediately follow relate to; Thomas Topham. who exhibited about a .century ago, being 31 years, and 5 feet 10 inches high: — 1. Having rubbed his fingers with coal-ashes to keep them from slipping, he rolled up a very strong and large pewter plate. 2. Having laid seven or eight short and strong pieces of tobacco pipe on the first and third finger, he broke them with the force of his middle finger. 3. He broke the bowl of a strong tobacco pipe placed between his first and third finger, by pressing his fingers together sideways. 4. Having thrust such another bowl under his garter, his legs being bent, he broke it to pieces by the tendons of his hams, without altering the bending of his leg. 5. He lifted with his teeth, and held in a horizontal position for a considerable time, a tabje six feet long, with half a hundred weight hataging at the end of it. Tl\e feet of the table rested against his knees. 6. Holding in his right hand an iron kitchenp.olcer, three feet long and three inches round, lie struck upon his bare left arm, between the elbow and the wrist, till he bent the poker nearly to a right angle. 7. Taking a similar poker, and holding the ends of it in his hands, and the middle against the back of his neck, he brought both ends of it together before 'him, and he then pulled it almost straight again. This last feat was the most difficult, because the muscles which separate the arms horizontally from each other are not so strong as those which bring them together. 8. He broke a rope about two inches in circumference which was partly wound about a cylinder four inches in diameter, having fastened the other end of it to straps that went over his shoulder. 9. Dr. Desaguliers saw him lift a rolling stone of about SOOfts. weight, with his hands only, standing in a frame above it, and taking hold of a frame fastened to it. Hence Pr. Desaguliers gives the following relative view of the strengths of individuals : Strength of the weakest men.. .. 12fl,ft>s. Strength of very strong men.... 400 Strength of Topham iBOO The weight of Topham was about 200. One of the most remarkable and inexplicable experiments relative to the strength of the human frame, is that in which a heavy man is< raised with the greatest facility, when he is lifted up the instant that his own ’lungs and those, of the persons who raise him are inflated with air. This experhnent was, I believe, first shown in England a-few years ago by Major H., who saw it performed in. a large party at Venice/under the direction of an officer of the American navy. As Major H. performed it more than once in my presenoe, I shall describe as nearly as possible the method which he prescribed. The heaviest person in the party lies down upon two chairs, his legs being supported by the one and his back by the other. Four persons, one at ;each leg, and one at each shoulder, then try to raise him, and. they find his dead weight. to be very great, from the difficulty they experience in supporting him. When he is replaced in the chair, each of the four persona takes hold of the body as before, and the person to be lifted gives two signals by clapping his hands. . At the first signal he himself and the four lifters begin to.draw a.long and full breath ; and when the inhalation is completed, or the lungs filled, the second signal is given-for raising the person from the chair. To his own surprise and that of his bearers, he rises with the greatest facility, as if he were no heavier than a feather. On.several occasions T. have observed, that when one >of. the bearers performed his part ill, by making the inhalation out of time, the part of the body which be tries to raise is left as it were behind. At Venice the experiment was performed in a much more imposing manner. The heaviest .man in the party was raised and sustained upon the points of the fore-fingers of six persons., Major H. declared that the experiment would not succeed if the person lifted were placed upon a board,: and the strength of the individuals applied to the board. lie conceived it necessary that the bearers should communicate directly with the body to be raised. I have not had :an opportunity of making any experiments relative to these curious facts,; but whether the general effect is an illusion, or the result of known or of new principles, the subject merits a careful investigation;— Chambers' Edmburgh Journal.