20 THE EARLY TASMANIAN PRESS, ETC. 



offenders. . . . and tending to bring the Government 

 and the Administration into Public Hatred and Con- 

 tempt. ' Tliercfore, in order to stop the issue of the 

 blasphemous and seditious libels, the Act decreed 



(1.) That no person should print or publish a news- 

 paper without having hrst obtained a license ; this license 

 was to be issued by the Governor, and must be renewed 

 annually. 



(2.) That if the licensee published any matter tending 

 to bring into contempt or hatred the Royal Family, the 

 Government or Constitution of the United Kingdom or 

 of Tasmania, the license could be cancelled at once. 



(3.) That each licensee should enter into a recognis- 

 ance before the Chief Justice, along with two or three 

 guarantors, the printer giving security to the extent of 

 £400, and the others for a further £400, that no libel 

 should be printed. 



An accompanying Act (8 Geo. IV., No. 3) imposed a 

 stamp duty of threepence per copy on all newspapers 

 printed in the island, but allowed the Governor to reduce 

 the duty at any time. Heavy penalties were to be im- 

 posed for printing on unstamped paper (49). 



Armed with these Acts, Arthur felt secure, and at 

 once refused to give Bent a license to print. The veteran 

 printer tried various devices, including the publication of 

 a sheet containing advertisements only ; but at every turn 

 the law pounced upon him, and he suffered heavily. At 

 the same time, the Gazette ceased to print anything but 

 Government notices, thus becoming an official notice-sheet 

 and nothing more. Dr. Ross turned the non-official part 

 of the old Gazette into a new paper, the Hohart Toim. 

 Courier, in which he continued to pour out his wrath 

 against the Radicals, and his mild flatteries of Ai'thur. 



The passage of the newspaper Acts had been bitterly 

 resented by the advocates of liberty, and a forcible protest, 

 signed by fifty leading citizens, informed Arthur that the 

 restrictions on the press were "needless, unconstitutional, 

 and debasing — an insult to the colony, and contrary to the 

 iinplied engagements of the Crown when emigration was 

 invited" (50). Arthur gave an unsatisfactory reply, and 

 the protest was therefore despatched to the Home au- 

 thorities, with a request that the obiectionable Acts might 

 be disallowed. In December, 1828, the reply was re- 

 ceived, supporting the colonists in their ]->rotest, and an- 

 nullins: both Acts (51). 



Here ended the first phase in the struggle for liberty 

 of the press. The result had been a partial rebuff for the 

 Governor, who now for six years refrained from any 



