THE CHRONICLES OF EARL Y
MELBOURNE.
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N o . 9 (26th February) contains some corrigenda of the Racing Prospectus issued in its predecessor, and revised schedules of articles for sale at the stores of Batman and Rucker. T h e only item of intelligence is the following, which is an average sample of Fawkner's composition :— " O n Friday last the 6 Bushrangers w h o some time past stole a Boat from this T o w n entered the H u t of M r O'Connor's Station near Western Port and took 3 Guns one Pistol a quantity of Gunpowder and Shot Pr of Boots S o m e Flour, Tea, Sugar, & c upon M r O. C. urging the danger of being left without firearms they promised to return two of the Guns and Pistol, they behaved very quietly and avoided all that Brutal conduct which so frequently Attends such exploits." T h e "Poet's Corner" is garnished with a lay of " T h e Lover to his Intended," thefirstverse of which is so amorous or rather erotic in its phraseology as to render its production here undesirable. The last verse thus reads literally :— " Sing me to sleep Thy Cadences Shal be the music of the breze T o fill m y sail and waft m e on Until some halcyon Shore be W o n While Love and Hope and Plesure beam The guiding Stars throughout m y Dream."
No. 10, 5th March, has a fair show of advertisements and nothing more. The boat notice of the M c L e a n w h o ferried passengers from Williamstown to the beach is written one and a-half times. O n the third page appears the following extraordinary "postscript," evidently scribbled in hurry and rage, by Fawkner, for it is in his handwriting, and in appearance very much as if his hand shook considerably while he was inditing it:— " This number was not fully Written out when press and Type arrived, and No. 10 was printed, But unfortunately was lost or stolen, and so lost to J O H N P. F A W K N E R ,
May 4th, 1838."
The commas were put in by some other person. And so end the MSS. productions. All the foregoing numbers are inscribed under the title in Fawkner's writing as " John Pascoe Fawkner's Gift."
THE FIRST PRINTED NEWSPAPER.
Whilst Fawkner was working away with his pen-and-ink sketcher, a rare stroke of good fortune placed him in possession of some used-up type and an old press, which had been superannuated in Launceston, and he was in ecstacies over the valuable "find." But though the "pica" was there, no regular "picanier" or compositor was to be found. After much hunting up a very "grassy" hand, in the person of a V a n Diemonian youth, who, seven years before, had worked for a twelvemonth at " case" was ferretted out, and h o w he and Fawkner contrived to get the paper " set-up" is one of those mysteries which time has never unravelled. T h e Advertiser did, however, appear in all the battered glory of half-defaced type, and itsfirstissue contains an agglomeration of news almost as seedy as the letter-press. T h e leader thus concludes:—" W e earnestly beg the public to excuse this ourfirstappearance, in the absence of the compositor, w h o was engaged. W e were under the necessity of trusting ourfirstnumber (in print) to a V a n Diemonian youth of eighteen, and this lad only worked at his business about a year, from his tenth to his eleventh, 1830 to 1831. Next the honest printer, from w h o m the type was bought, has swept up all his old waste letter and called it type, and w e at present labour under many wants; we even have not as much as Pearl Ash to clean the Dirty Type."
