II.— MAGAZINES.
1821. The Australian Magazine: a Compendium of Religious, Literary, and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
No, 1, May 1. Published monthly. 32 pages, 8vo. Price, 1s. 3d.
This was the first magazine published in the Colony. The
contents of the first number are as follows : — (1) Extract of a
Letter from Governor Macquarie, giving his "sanction and appro-
bation" to the magazine ; (2) A Life of the eminent Missionary,
Swartz; (3) A Sermon on the truth, importance, and design of
Revelation; (4) History of Water Snakes, Sea Snakes, and Sea
Serpents; (5) " On Liberality of Sentiment"; (6) Letter to the
Editor; (7) Allegory on Impudence and Modesty ; (8) Literary
Intelligence ; (9) Religious Intelligence ; (10) General Infor-
mation; (11) Agricultural Export ; (12) Select Poetry.
The appearance of this magazine is by no means good, the paper and type being of a very inferior description. It was printed by George Howe, the publisher of the Sydney Gazette; and it seems that, up to the year 1821, no other printing office had been established in the Colony. The thirteenth number contains an announcement that the magazine would appear, after that issue, as a quarterly, instead of a monthly, publication; the reason assigned being the want of mechanical facilities. The publisher hints at the expected receipt of a "liberal and diversified supply of type" from Europe, which would enable him to overcome the difficulties in his way.
The contents of the Australian Magazine display no talent. They are principally of a religious character, suggesting the idea that the editor was a clergyman, and that he was under the necessity of writing the whole of the magazine himself At a much later period, we find the failure of many similar publications ascribed to the difficulty of finding contributors ; the editor being, in most oases, left to furnish the contents with his own pen.
