The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Bennett, Samuel
Bennett, Samuel, was a native of Cornwall, and was born on March 20th, 1815. He went to Australia in 1841, having been engaged by Messrs. Stevens & Stokes, of the Sydney Morning Herald, to superintend the typographical department of that paper. Having held this post for seventeen years, Mr. Bennett, in 1859, purchased the Empire newspaper which had been started by Mr. (now Sir) Henry Parkes nine years previously. Messrs. Hanson & Bennett conducted the Empire for several years as a daily and weekly journal, Mr. Bennett becoming sole proprietor some time before it ceased publication. He also started in 1867 The Evening News, and in 1870 The Australian Town and Country Journal, a weekly newspaper, both of which achieved phenomenal success. Mr. Bennett was the author of "The History of Australian Discovery and Colonisation," which is recognised as a standard work of reference. He died at his residence, Mundarrah Towers, Little Coogee, Sydney, N.S.W., on June 2nd, 1878.