BY HEKBERT MEATON, M.A., M. COMM. 17 



more pliable person. Arthur discovered the desired 

 character in George Terry Howe, son of the George Howe 

 \vho in 1803 had established the Sydney Gazette (34). 

 Howe had begun to publish Tlie Taswanian in Launceston 

 early in 1825, but he v/as now approached by Arthur, and 

 ofTered the post of Government Printer in Hobart. He was 

 piomised a subsidy of £300 a year, in place of the £30 

 which had been paid annually to Bent (35). Attracted 

 bv these terms, Howe came to Hobart, and after arranging 

 a partnership with James Ross, LL.D., a brilliant Scots- 

 man living in Hobart, he produced his first copy of the 

 Tlohart Town Gazette on June 25, 1825. 



The name of the paper was frankly pirated from Bent, 

 bat the protests of the latter were met with the retort that 

 the title was one which belonged only to the official organ 

 of the Government, and that as Bents i>aper had sacrificed 

 its claim to official recognition, it had ij^^'^ facto lost its 

 title. Bent eventually was compelled to accept the new 

 situation, and in August his paper appeared under the 

 name of the Colonial Times. Meanwhile the new Gazette, 

 though printed at first in very inferior style, showed no 

 penitence for its usurpation, and the two journals filled 

 many columns flinging gibes and journalistic mud at each 

 other. The Gazette took up an attitude of appreciation 

 towards the Government, and sang the praises of Arthur's 

 administration (36). A letter by "Colonist" which had 

 formerly appeared in the old Gazette was reprinted, but 

 with every "ISro"' turned to "Yes," with "unsatisf actor}-" 

 changed to "satisfactory," and with every criticism trans- 

 formed into a commendation (37). Arthur could rely on 

 the loval support of his new printers, in spite of the edi- 

 torial assertion that the opinions expressed in the new 

 journal were "free and uncontrolled." 



Having succeeded in this first attack on Bent and his 

 supporters, Arthur now pressed on to the second. Tlie 

 rebel printer must be sued for libel. Out of the mass of 

 anti-governmental utterances, two were selected. The first 

 was the editorial which referred to the appeal to Sydney 

 against Arthur's claim to the paper (38) ; the second re- 

 lated to statements made concerning Arthur's alleged mis- 

 deeds whilst Governor of Honduras (39). In commenting 

 on the former incident, the editor had made a scarcely 

 veiled reference to the Governor as a "Gibeonite of 

 tyranny." The allusion, the exact meaning of which no 

 one seemed to understand, was regarded as imputing some 

 esDecialh^ bad form of tyranny ; and the second charge, to 

 which a third was added subsequently (40), was based on 

 the assertion that Bent had made imputations of tyranny. 



