BY HERBERT HEATON, M.A., M. COMM. 19 



a free i3ress was a mere luxury, and Tasmania had not yet 

 reached the stage for luxuries. Arthur made his position 

 clear to a deputation of fifty Hobart residents who waited 

 on him in December. 1825, with a request for the suppres- 

 sion of disorder in the gaol and bushranging throughout 

 the country (45). In his repl3^ Arthur pointed out that 

 the cause of the' outlawry and violence was to be found in 

 the "factious principles disseminated in the colony through 

 the medium of a licentious Press," the utterances of which 

 had a disquieting effect on the convict population, "who, 

 being for the most part men predisposed to evil, are un- 

 able to draw the necessary line betw^een the libertv of writ- 

 ing and the liberty of acting, and who, seeing the Govern- 

 ment insulted with impunity, and its measures character- 

 ised as the effort of weakness and imbecility, have been led 

 to the delusive expectation that resistance to the con- 

 stituted authonties might prove successful." The Hobart 

 23ress, he declared, was "striving to alienate, as fa.r as it 

 was able, the community from the Government,' and 

 'tending to destroy the only rallying point on which the 

 countrv could rest or from Avhich it might reasonably ex- 

 pect to have its affairs retrieved" (46). In similar vein, 

 Arthur declared about a year later that "so long as the 

 colony was a place for the reception of convicts, the press 

 could not be free : that it was dangerous to authority, and 

 calculated to destroy the security of domestic life"' (47). 

 Arthur evidently presumed that the convicts could afford 

 to procure copies of the paper (at one shilling each), and 

 were able to read the printed word — both doubtful sup- 

 positions. 



Holding the above opinions. Arthur now determined 

 to gain more effective control over the press, through the 

 agency of the newly-established Legislative Council. In 

 New South Wales the freedom of the press, srranted by 

 Governor Binsbane in 1824, had caused much friction be- 

 tween the papers and the authorities, and Governor Dar- 

 ling was now attempting to regain control of the journal- 

 ists. Arthur resolved to imitate Darling, and in Septem- 

 ber, 1827. the Legislative Council of Van Diemen's Land 

 passed "An Act to regulate the Printinsf and Publishing 

 of Newspapers, and for the Prevention of blasphemous and 

 seditions Libels" (8 Geo. IV., No. 2) (48). The preamble 

 stated the case for the Governor. The number of con- 

 victs was far greater than that of free settlers, and the 

 colonv was primarily a prison settlement. Newspapers 

 had thrown off the official censorship, and had abused their 

 freedom by publishins: matter "calculated to diminish the 

 due authority of the Government over transported 



