THE NEW COLONY 327 



the police magistrate refused to grant him one. Failing permission 

 for dramatic performances the " Pavilion," as it was called, was 

 opened as a concert hall in connection with the hotel, but it was 

 conducted with such an absence of order, and often in violation of 

 common decency, that the authorities interfered and peremptorily 

 ordered it to be closed. This prohibition brought about the in- 

 solvency of the manager, and unsuccessful attempts were made to 

 sell the property, which, during the year, was the subject of many 

 police court actions. At length, early in 1842, when it was lying 

 empty and somewhat tattered, an Amateur Theatrical Association 

 was formed by half a dozen respectable citizens, to rehabilitate the 

 building, and produce legitimate dramatic entertainments for charit- 

 able and benevolent purposes, the immediate intention being to 

 raise funds for the projected hospital. The Committee which took 

 it in hand easily secured a licence, and having effected all necessary 

 repairs and improvements, opened it under the name of the Theatre 

 Royal, with a very creditable amateur performance. Later on the 

 name was changed to the Royal Victoria Theatre, but it did not 

 take long for the Amateur Association to lose all their money, and 

 get out of their liabilities as best they could. Thereafter the 

 place struggled for a year or two, affording opportunities to bands 

 of strolling players, and, for one season, with some show of success, 

 when a Mr. and Mrs. Knowles from Launceston introduced Shake- 

 speare to the Melbourne public, and staged both "Othello " and " The 

 Merchant of Venice " in a manner which evoked most laudatory 

 criticisms from all the papers. But the taste for the higher drama 

 was not sufficiently pronounced, and interludes in which buffoonery 

 and rioting occurred frequently caused the intervention of the 

 police. Finally, the name was again changed to the Canterbury 

 Hall, and the low-class performances given became such a nuisance 

 that it was at last pulled down as a discredit to the neighbourhood. 

 The extinction of the first theatre was accelerated by the fact 

 that Alderman John Thomas Smith erected a much larger and 

 more permanent playhouse in Queen Street, which was opened 

 in April, 1845, under the title of the Queen's Theatre. This 

 remained the legitimate home of the drama for the next ten years, 

 and was the means of introducing to Melbourne some of its most 



