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36 BIRTH OF PRINTING This proclamation was a source of much con- sternation to Ritter and Smith, who immediately memorialised the Governor. Sir George Yonge promised that the Government would purchase a press which Ritter was then expefting from Europe, and on 2Oth September Smith was com- pelled to deposit his printing materials under the care of the Secretary to the Government. On 1 6th August Messrs. Walker and Robertson issued the first number of their paper, the ' Cape Town Gazette, and African Advertiser,' which appeared in English and Dutch. Complaints soon began to arise about the price of the paper and the charge made for advertisements. Further, the Government became uneasy as to the editing of what was, to all intents and purposes, an official gazette being in private hands. It soon became known that the Government intended to take all printing into its own hands. Smith began to bombard Major-General Dundas with applications to be ' reinstated ' as Government printer, a situation which he had never held. Messrs. Walker and Robertson were informed of the Government's intention, and were asked to put in a claim for compensation. The firm sent in a detailed account amounting to some 17,000 rix dollars. The amount to be paid for the press, printing materials, and compensation was eventually compromised at 12,000 rix dollars, equivalent, at the current rate of exchange, to 2,000. On loth October a proclamation was issued setting forth the reasons which had induced the Government to take the press into its own hands, and giving notice of a