This return was called for by our local representative, David Bower, Esq., M.P., and is a very important document. It shews in a most conclusive manner that We are making great progress as a cominuflity. In I860, when, the first discovery of copper was made, the sum of £2,67910s was received at the Treasury for mineral applications, and £48819s 2d for pastoral leases. In 1861, when the mmmg furore was ut its height, £14,956 10s was paid to the Government for mineral applications, and £1,002 10s for mineral leases ; £440 10s 5d for pastoral leases, and £428 10s for timber licenses, besides which thesales of landrealised£13,270 lis. It is scarcely worth while for us to enumerate every item in the return, we shall therefore give a brief summary of its contents. The mining mania fell off immensely in the second year (1862), when only £1,126 15s was received for mineral applications, and in 1863, £817 9s; but it revived a little in 1864, when £1,444 was received on this account. Last year the sum amounted to £1:170. The highest: amoimt paid for mineral leases was in 1862—namely, £3,295, and the next in order# was last year, when £2,403 appears under the same heading. T^Viis would seem to indicate a prosperous state of things in mining; aflairs, for at the present time we are free from that wild speculation in shares which characterised the year 1861-2. The sum which was paid last year may therefore be considered to represent a far larger amount of legitimate mining than the greater sum paid in 1862. Another indication of the increasing prosperity of the Peninsula is found, in the. amount paid for depasturing licenses, which in 1865 was £109 10s, or more than double that of any previous year; this is besides £938 lis 8d for pastoral leases, a sum more than double that paid in the years 1861 and 1862. Bog fees also amounted last year to £166, against £24 12s in 1862. The revenue from the Post-office in 1861 was only £438 12s 3d, while in 1865 it was £1,067 10s 5d. The Telegraph was opened here in 1S62, when £218 14s Id was received for messages; the correspondingamountfor1865being£y20 5s 9d. The total sum received from this department during four years having been £2,113 19s 6d. In five years the Postoffice produced £3.645 15s 2d; fines, fees and forfeitures, £1,580 13s 3d. The items Marine Uoard, quarrying licences, depasturage licences, and dog fees, together shew a total of £1,948 15s Id; the first and third items only having any return for the last three years, while the others include a term of five years. For timber licences the five years have produced £3621 ; six years' pastoral leases, £3,62619s 11; six years'mineral applications, £22,194 4s ; five years' mineral leases, £10,956; four years' customs return amount to £3,066 Is lid; and five years' land -sales to the large sum of £3*2,754 9s. The grand total of revenue received from the Crown lands and mining, district of Torte's Peninsula from 1860 to 1.865" amounts to £95,507 17s 10 ; and all of this, except £3,168 9s 2d (for 1860), was received during five years, thus Shewink an average annual revenue of £18,467 17s 9d derived from the district;

Let usnbwturn tothe other side and see 16'w nruch has been expended on this iMgdi^ant district; We shall select only the principal items for comparison. The e^en^itipre bn account of Grown Lands. ^iH^ey, and Public Wdrks Deponents, during the five years from 1861 to 1865

Sd, wrther moire than two-thirds of which is for public wjoi&s. The revenue from land sales,

items, wlifeV may fairty be set against this expenditure, is £84,027 17s 3d or frge^y-jax* • amount expended,

^jPhp^lrahd $o|j|if of e^fenditure ^om 'I860 to ^1^65 is ^88,2®$' j5s lid stewing a surplus i^veii$e./|p''',>t'he cre&fc of the

lis lid. It should be "remembered" that these items are almost entirely local,—we mean that they are independent of the opdinai^ taxation: to wMeii as South Australian colonists we are all liable. Surely there are few, if any other, districts in the colony which have derived so little benefit from the Government in return for what they have produced. The large amount now to the credit of the District would go more thaii half way towards making the railway to Clare.