"g r °gg er y-" T h e Government required the reserve where it stood, for the erection of a Custom-house, and in order to part peaceably with Fawkner, the tenement was purchased for ^ i o o , with the stipulation that Fawkner was not to re-build there. T h e materials, subsequently sold to someone else, were re-constructed in Market Street, and rented by Blanche, a gunsmith. O n the 24th December, 1839, the " Sporting Emporium," as it was called, was blown up by the accidental ignition of some powder carelessly laying on the counter, and produced the horrible tragedy described in a former chapter.
FAWKNER'S SECOND HOTEL.
At the second Melbourne Government land sale (1st November, 1837), Fawkner became the owner for £o of the half-acre allotment at the south-east corner of Collins and Market Streets, on which he put up a wooden and brick building for an hotel, and on the erection of what was afterwards the Club House at the corner, the old affair was turned into the printing office where the Patriot was published for many years. T h e Club House was subsequently metamorphosed into the Shakespeare, and after numerous amplifications reappears now before the public as the Union Club Hotel. Fawkner's Hotel was in its day the principal place of entertainment in town, and No. 2 was a vast improvement (though that is not saying much) architecturally, and from every point of view, on N o . 1. Yet this old-forgotten inn has associated with it two historical reminiscences, for which the most pretentious hotel of to-day would wish for in vain. It was here, on the 1st January, 1838, Fawkner started the first newspaper, not printed, but written, in the colony—The Melbourne Advertiser; and here was made the first attempt, humble enough in its way, to form ourfirstreading-room. Though Fawkner had little of the litterateur about him, he was a voracious reader, and one of his hobbies was to affect to provide good pabulum for the mind, and corporeal and intellectual refreshments were therefore served up at the hotel. For the grosser aliment is. per drink was charged, and a free read was thrown in as ballast. T h e Melbourne Advertiser will be more fully noticed elsewhere, but from its first number (the only one in existence) I have copied the following literary curiosity. It is in Fawkner's penmanship ; the etymology and punctuation are also his, and it is the first advertisement of the kind issued in Port Phillip :— FIRST ESTABLISHED HOTEL IN MELBOURNE. FAWKNER'S
HOTEL
Supplies to T h e Traveller and Sogourner All the usual requisites of a Boarding House and Hotel of the very best Quality Being mostly laid in from the First Mercantile House in Cornwall V D Land In addition to which there will be found Mental Recreation of a High There are provided
7 English and 5 Colonial Weekly
Order
Newspapers
Seven British Monthly Magazines Three Quarterly British Reviews up to July and August 1837 A
very choise Siliction of Books
encluding
Novels
Poetry Theology
History
Philosophy
Chemistry &c.
N.B. A late Encylopidia The use of A n y of these Works will be free to the Lodgers at the Above Hotel.
The two great weaknesses, or perhaps rather strong points, in Fawkner's composition (and he was a voluminous newspaper writer) were a desire to "capitalize" immoderately, and rarely to put down the brake from start to finish. A s for colons, semi-colons, and such trifles he would not condescend to notice them. At periods he was even reluctant to make a stop, and skipped over them oftener than otherwise. In 1838 there were 8 Licensed Victuallers in the Province, viz., 7 in the town and 1 in the interior. T h e names of those original Bonifaces were : — M E L B O U R N E — J . P. Fawkner, Fawkner's Hotel, Collins Street- William Smith, the Lamb Lnn, Collins Street; Thomas Halfpenny, the William Tell, Collins Street; Michael Carr the Governor Bourke, Little Flinders Street; Michael Pender, the Shamrock, Little Flinders qt r • T H Umpleby, the Angel Lnn, Collins and Queen Streets ; William Harper, the British Hotel, William Street. T H E G O U L B U R N R I V E R — J o h n Clark, the Travellers' Rest.
