March, 1848, Goode was prosecuted for an outrageous slander upon Mr. Sidney Stephen, a Barrister, and sentenced to two months' imprisonment. The Albion, as a consequence burst up.
In 1848, Mr. Colin Campbell started a weekly newspaper known as the Observer. It was an extreme "Squatting" organ, and its "leaders" were so lengthy, laboured and flatulent that the Editor acquired the equivocal distinction of being dubbed the "creature of large discourse." Considerable literary ability was shown in its composition, but the paper did not take as expected, and was discontinued after the issue of several numbers.
The religious journals made a commencement in 1846, when the Rev. James Forbes initiated the Port Phillip Christian Herald, to which several clerics contributed, and it was very ably conducted, contrasting favourably by its moderation with the infuriated bigotry of other Christian periodicals afterwards published. In January, 1850, through the exertions of Bishop Perry, and the Rev. D. Newham, the Church of England Messenger, was floated, and received considerable support from the denomination whose spiritual interests it represented. It was printed by Mr. Benjamin Lucas at his shop in Collins Street, near the Argus Hotel, and issued monthly.
During the first decade that elapsed in the newspaper life of Port Phillip, all things considered, it cannot be denied that much progress was made, for at the commencement of 1849, the following journals were in existence in the district, viz., Melbourne, the Patriot re-named the Daily News, and the Herald (dailies), the Gazette (tri-weekly), the Argus (bi-weekly), the Church of England Messenger (weekly), and the Christian Herald (fortnightly). In Geelong were the Advertiser, established, November, 1840, by Mr. J. P. Fawkner, first as a weekly, and now a tri-weekly; the Corio Chronicle (a bi-weekly), and the Victoria Courier (a weekly); and Portland, with its Guardian, as a bi-weekly, and Gazette, once a week. Subsequently the Corio Chronicle, originally established by Messrs. W. Beaver, and W. Clarke, was transformed into the Victoria Colonist, and published bi-weekly for Dr. Thomson, of Geelong, where also Mr. Thomas Coomb issued the Omnibus; whilst Portland substituted a Herald for a Gazette, and Belfast secured its Gazette, edited and published by Mr. T. H. Osborne. In June, 1850, the Melbourne Family Herald, a weekly journal, price 3d., was commenced by Mr. Henry Hayden, and continued for some time by Mr. Craig whilst about the same time Mr. Graham Finlayson[1] initiated a Temperance Advocate, a short-lived well-meaning print, which was succeeded in August by the Victoria Temperance Pioneer, of almost equally brief duration. The Telegraph, a spitefully-written weekly, teeming with scandalous innuendo, and filtered filth, made its appearance, but was as short-lived as it deserved. In April, 1851, Mr. Goode, undeterred by previous reverses, started the Melbourne Weekly Despatch, only to witness another failure.
After this unavoidable chronological digression, I shall return to the three primary journals, and briefly recapitulate what the future had in store for them.
The "Gazette,"
After getting into the hands of the Philistines, through the indiscretions of Arden, was secured as a bargain from Arden's creditors by Mr. Thomas M'Combie, who long had a hankering to become a newspaper proprietor. He worked away at it assiduously and economically, and though it never commanded much political or other influence, a number of the colonists who had become acclimatized to its dullness continued their support; and as the advertising community was generous of its patronage, the Gazette contrived to eke out a precarious existence for several years. From a bi-weekly it advanced to a tri-weekly, and on the Fool's Day of 1851 it was expanded into a daily, with its name
- ↑ The following communication has been addressed to me in reference to this matter:—
To "Garryowen."
Sir, In your "Chronicles of Early Melbourne," which I read with great interest, you mention that Mr. Graham Finlayson started in 1850 the Temperance Advocate. You unintentionally omit to mention that in 1851 he established the first evening paper, called the Evening News. I well remember having to go to the old Flagstaff daily for shipping intelligence.
I am proud that my revered father had the enterprise to run two of the first papers in Melbourne, although both ventures were unsuccessful through the apathy of the reading public at that period. I feel it due to his memory that those facts should be recorded in your Chronicles, which in future will be referred to as the correct authority on that question.
I am, &c.,
PETER FINLAYSON.
Islington Street, Collingwood, 5th June.
