4 THE EAKLY TASMANIA^ PllP^SS, ETC. 



by a salute of twenty-one guns from the artillery. '"The 

 Deputy Assistant Commissary-General will cause to be is- 

 sued to each of the Non-commissioned Officers and private 

 Soldiei-s one Pound of Fresh Meat and Half a Pint of 

 Spirits, to drink His Majesty's Health. The Deputy 

 Assistant Commissary-General will also cause to be issued 

 to the several Superintendents, Overseers, Constables, and 

 other Persons in the actual Employ of the Government one 

 Pound of Fresh Meat and Half a Pint of Spirits each on 

 the above occasion. The Government Mechanics and La- 

 boui'ers will be exem-pted from work on Tuesday next." 

 Evidently life in the early days was not a quite unbroken 

 round of joyless toil. 



Immediately underneath follows the welcome announce- 

 ment that there is on sale at W. Presnel's store, in Col- 

 lins Street, a quantity of the best Brazil tobacco at 7s. ster- 

 ling per pound. An account of court proceedings comes 

 next, and this, along with two items of shipping news, ex- 

 hausts the local information. Two-thirds of the second 

 column are still to be filled, and the editor takes refuge 

 in publishing "Anecdotes of Frederic the II., the late King 

 of Piiissia," anecdotes which redound greatly to the heart 

 and head of that monarch, but have no direct bearing on 

 the affairs of Hobart Town. 



Such are the tidings presented to the eager public by 

 Bent's iirst issue. No. 2 is more attractive ; the King's 

 Birthday has come and gone, so there is plenty to record. 

 A spirited account of the jubilations is given, ending as 

 follows : — ''At Six o'clock in the Evening a sumptuou.s and 

 splendid Dinner was given at Government House, at which 

 were pre&ent the Officers, Civil and Military, the Com- 

 manders of the different Ships in the Harbour, and the 

 Gentlemen of Hobart Town and its neighbourhood. 

 Hilarity and loyalty pervaded every Breast, and the hours 

 passed with the utmost conviviality." At least twelve of 

 the gentlemen present were in the proper frame of mind 

 and body to do justice to such a banquet, for immediately 

 underneath the above paragraph, we read that on the 

 morning of the same day, ''a FOOT RACE between Twelve 

 Gentlemen took place on the Road to New Town, . . . 

 a distance of two miles; the first Six Gentlemen that 

 gained the goal were to be the winner of a Dinner, to be 

 given by the unsuccessful competitors" (6). 



Aioart from such trivialities, there is little local news 

 in the early issues. Presumably, as was the custom in 

 the newspaper world at that time, local events were sup- 

 posed to be either too well known to be chronicled, or not 

 worth recording. Hence the only Tasmanian news tells of 



