Cirrus@Austlit

Buggins comments on the financial shortages faced by the new New South Wales government and also requests the new government to 'introduce the long needed reform in the police force'.

Buggins then reflects: 'We have had very little novelty in the way of amusements this week'. He notes the Prince of Wales Opera House's production of Edward Fitzball's Christmas Eve; or, A Duel in the Snow, H. J. Byron's burlesque The Lady of Lyons and, in a little more detail, Joseph Stirling Coyne's My Wife's Daughter. Buggins briefly mentions the amusements at the Sydney Mechanic's School of Arts and at the Varieties.

J. Sheridan Moore provides an explanation for the 'awkwardness' in his lecture at the at the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts perceived by Buggins. Moore states: 'Just as I was moving to the platform on the evening referred to, I was told ... that "the authorities" had been stimulated to regard our Diorama with suspicion, and that there were some half-dozen detectives or policemen in the Hall, to serve as a body of censors on the series of pictures which I had undertaken to explain. I confess that on hearing this ... I was a little flurried'.

An advertisement for James Hill, bookseller and stationer, advising of the arrival of 'a large assortment of standard Catholic works, Bibles, Prayer Books, &c., which he is determined to sell at the very lowest prices'.

An advertisement for Greville and Company, agents for Messers Harrild and Sons, London, advertising the sale of various items of printing machinery and equipment.

An advertisement for James Cole's cheap book and stationery depot. James Cole has available the poetical works of William Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Thomas Moore, Robert Burns and Henry Longfellow; novels by Walter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper; and assorted stationery items.

An advertisement for Clark's Varieties and People's Theatre production of John Beer Johnstone's Gale Breezely; or, The Tale of a Tar and William E. Suter's Brother Bill and Me on 21 and 23 November 1868.

An advertisement advising that the proprietors of the Freeman's Journal have entered into a 'job printing business' and 'are now prepared to execute orders'.

A list of suburban, country and inter-colonial agents for the Freeman's Journal.

An advertisement, for Greville and Company, for the sale of various types of paper, pens, pencils, slates, ledgers and other stationery items.

An advertisement advising that Greville and Company are the 'authorised Sydney agents of all the leading provincial journals of New South Wales' and are able 'to offer terms for the insertion of advertisements which can be done by none but a recognised agent'.

An advertisement for the Leader stating that it is 'without exception, the largest paper in the Australian colonies' and that it has 'a guaranteed circulation of 21,000 copies'.

An advertisement advising that Freeman's Journal 'is filed and may be seen, free of charge, at Holloway's, 533, Oxford-street, W. C., (late of 224, Strand) London, where advertisements and subscriptions may be received'.