PAPERS 



OF TIIK 



ROYAL SOCIETY OF TASMANIA 



1916. 



THE EARLY TASMANIAN PRESS, AND ITS 

 STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM. 



By Llerbeii: Heaton, M.A., M. Comm. ; Lecturer in History 

 and Economics in the Universitv of Tasmania. 



(Read 11th July, 1915. Issued separately 17th March, 1916.) 



The figures in brackets refer to the notes at the end o^ 

 this paper. 



It \vould be quite impossible to deal at all adequately 

 with the early history of our press in anything less than a 

 substantial volume. During the first fifty years of the 

 colony, at least forty newspapers made their humble bow 

 to the Tasmanian public. There were weeklies, fortnight- 

 lies, monthlies, and quarterlies ; there were sporting papers, 

 teetotal advocates (1). church newses, and Irish exiles' 

 leaflets (2). One marvels at the sublime faith in human 

 intelligence exhibited by the foundei^ of this multitude 

 of publications, and one smiles at the unmercenary idealism 

 of their introductory editorials. Each new editor, who 

 was often an old one renovated, appeals to the sound com- 

 mon-sense and progressive sympathies of every right-think- 

 ing man in the colony. The motto of the paper is to be 

 principles rather than personalities, criticism without cant, 

 praise without adulation, truth and justice wherever they 

 may be found. And in nine cases out of ten, the subse- 

 quent history is tragically similar. A non-reading or an 

 apathetic public, a few subscribers who received copies and 

 never paid for them, an occasional advertisement obtained 

 onh^ by offering a specially low rate; a few issues, perhaps 

 a dozen or a score at most, and then, without anv warning, 

 a silence. Journalistic failures bestrewed the path of 



