Sir S. Davenport ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 293 in 1850 to select South Australian products and transmit them to the late Prince Albert's International Flxhibition in London, 185 1, Sir Samuel Davenport visited England early in that year, and after receiving an Exhibition Medal for services, returned to Adelaide in 1853, In 1855 the Governor, Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, appointed Sir Samuel Davenport one of the four ncn-official members of the enlarged I.egislative Council appointed, with the addition of 16 elected members, to frame the Constitution Act. In March, 1857, Sir Samuel Davenport was an elected member of the first Legislative Council under the Constitution Act, and so remained up to August 30, 1866. when he resigned. His policy was broad and liberal, taking its centre in the advocacy of such reforms as were necessary to the welfare of the Province. The Treasury, however, was still lean, and could not .stand the strain of an elaljorate programme of extension such as he was inclined to favor. .Sir .Samuel Davenport twice held the portfolio of Commissioner of Public Works. No administrative office could have suitc-d his attainments better, and hardly any other politician of that ejwch could have discharged the duties of that office in closer consonance with the requirements and the possibilities of the State. The first Torrens Dam was made mainly through his exertions in his ministerial capacity ; and the completion of this most necessary undertaking was attended with expressions of general satisfaction. During many years past Sir Samuel has been ]irominently connected with varied phases of industry in the Province. The position of President of the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of South Australia was ably held by him for ten years ; and he also held the Presidentship of the Chamber of Manufactures simultaneously, with an additional six vears added. The unqualified success which attended his mission to Eno- land in 185 1 was instrumental in procuring for him the appointment of Executive Commissioner for South Australia at the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876, at the Sydney Exhibition in 1879, and at the Melbourne I'lxhibition in 1880. On his return to Adelaide from America, where he had worthily sustained the re])utation of .South Australia, he was made the recipient of a handsome testimonial, which was presented by .Sir R. 1). Hanson. On P'ebruary 4, 1887, a similar tribute of appreciation was paid him, tl.e presentation being mad<^ by .Sir Henry Ayers, on his return from acting as F.xecutivc Commissioner in London. During the progress of the Indian and Colonial Exhibiiitn in London in that year, in connection with which he again acquitted himself with commendable zeal as the representative of South Australia, he was made a K.C.M.G. by the Queen in consideration of his long and valuable services. The distinction of K.B. (Knight Bachelor) had already been conferred upon him for his conspicuous usefulness in advancing colonial interests. At the Indian and Colonial Exhibition the work which fell to his lot as Commissioner for South Australia was exceptionally heavy. He paid untiring attention to the supervision and arrangement of the South Australian exhibits, and the court in which they were exposed to observation and criticism became, through his exertions, a centre of attraction, and was generally pronounced to be one of the features of the Exhibition. In 1887 Sir Samuel Davenport's ripe experience was availed of for the
