Cirrus@Austlit

Backhouse and Walker exhorted the "numerous" convict population of the colonies to accept their fate, to reject sin, and to find their salvation in reading scripture and silent contemplation.

Published serials, short stories and poetry by colonial authors, along with reviews of books, poetry and theatre. Also included works from English magazines such as the London Weekly Review, Blackwood's Magazine, etc.

The editor's 'Introductory Address' (Vol. 1, No. 1 March, 1836, pp. 1-2) states: 'The want of a Magazine, whose pages should be devoted to general literature, avoiding the stormy arenas of politics and polemics, and combining amusement with instruction, has long been felt and acknowledged. A work of this description seems at the present juncture particularly required. There is evidently a growing taste for reading in the minds of our colonial public; and to foster and supply that taste is the object at which we aim. In following up our plan we shall endeavour, as far as it is practicable, to avoid all invidious distinctions of classes, meting out justice to all. In our dealings with others, we shall invariably make truth our object, and charity our motive; the good of all classes shall find us a warm supporter, and the bad an unsparing censor. A portion of our pages shall be devoted to Original Articles on General Literature; and no pains shall be spared to render this division worthy the support we expect from an indulgent public. A second portion will consist of Extracts selected from the best sources of Periodical Literature, a regular supply of which has been ordered from Britain. The remaining space will be filled with Reviews of New Books - Colonial and British, Literary Notices, the Drama, and other varieties. We trust that in the exercise of our vocation as Critics, we shall ever be found to treat the productions of others with that fairness and candour, which restrains not the freedom of enquiry, nor contracts the limits of just censure. It now only remains for us to entreat from the public its kind indulgence towards our future labours. We shall spare no exertions to provide for our readers useful and agreeable entertainment. We have endeavoured to secure such literary assistance as lay within the compass of our power. And we call on all who feel anxious to remove from the land, whether of their adoption or their birth, the stigma under which it has hitherto laboured, to unite with us in endeavouring to render Australia "Great, glorious, and free, First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea." '

The main object of the Colonist was 'the general diffusion of useful knowledge, and the inculcation of right principles in regard to the means of promoting the moral welfare and the general advancement of the colony of New South Wales'. (1.1 (1 January 1835): 1)

On 15 August 1834 Nathaniel Lipscomb Kentish published the first issue of the Sydney Times, an independent, pro-emancipist, four-page semi-weekly, which subsequently became a weekly publication. On page 2 of the first issue, with emphasis achieved by heavy use of capital letters, Kentish proposed that the newspaper's line of policy would be independent of principle : 'it shall be our chief aim, and our unremitting endeavour to "Advance Australia;" by which we mean simply to promote the INFORMATION, and with it, THE WEALTH, THE PROSPERITY, and THE HAPPINESS of "THE LAND WE LIVE IN," by emulating the better portion of the FREE PRESS of our accomplished Mother Country, in giving PUBLICITY WITH ECONOMY, to COMMERCIAL, and brief, but AUTHENTIC POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE in which the mass of "The People" is concerned'. On 8 April 1837 Kentish reiterated: 'The principles of this Paper are, as from its establishment have been, those of the moderate WHIG party of England, viz., admitting the necessity, and contending for the propriety, of improvement and reform in every department in which abuses exist, and which must therefore be susceptible of improvement; but without going the length of desiring to infringe, or of sanctioning the infringement of one principle of our admirable constitution in Church and State, as by law established. Its Editor is unshackled, and is expected to write as a gentleman thorougly independent of any party in the colony'.

Regular features included Editorials, Shipping Intelligence, Latest English News, Original Correspondence, Domestic Intelligence, Theatre Reviews and a Poet's Corner. On page 2 of 5 December 1834 issue, Kentish commented on the standard of original poetry submissions: 'So of Poetry. Our character being established as the vehicle of the Australian muse, in justice to our readers and ourselves, we are compelled to select for our Poet's Corner such pieces only, as will do credit to our reputation'.

With sales rising to 1371 copies, the Sydney Times, though irregularly published, finally outstripped its four contemporaries before its final appearance as an Extraordinary issue published on 2 July 1838. In this final issue Kentish notified the 'Colonial Public' that he was unlikely to resume his editorial duties and instead intented to pursue his career as a civil engineer and surveyor.

Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for Kentish, Nathaniel Lipscomb