After the break up of the municipality and the loss of his income my father lost health and spirits.

As we grew to love South Australia, we felt that we were in an expanding society, still feeling the bond to the motherland, but eager to develop a perfect society in the land of our adoption.

Probably my mother's life was prolonged beyond that of a long-lived family by her coming to Australia in middle life; and if I ever had any tendency to consumption, the climate must have helped me.

I had seen Adelaide the dearest and the cheapest place to live in.

I had learned what wealth was, and a great deal about production and exchange for myself in the early history of South Australia - of the value of machinery, of roads and bridges, and of ports for transport and export.

Nothing is insignificant in the history of a young community, and - above all - nothing seems impossible.

I look back to a happy childhood.