The Hobart Town Gazette was established on 25 June 1825 by Ross and Howe, the newly appointed Government Printers. As the authorised publisher of government notices, Ross and Howe's Gazette took over the role of government newspaper from the Hobart Town Gazette, and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser published by Andrew Bent. The Gazette was published a day after Bent's paper and used the same volume and issue numbering. The two papers were published in this way for seven weeks, until 19 August 1825 when Bent changed the title of his Hobart Town Gazette, and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser to Colonial Times, and Tasmanian Advertiser. However, both papers continued numbering in tandem.
The Hobart Town Gazette changed its title in 1881 and continued as The Hobart Gazette (1881-1906) and from 1907 as the Tasmanian Government Gazette.
The writer for the Australian argues that, since the 'Statement of the Colonial Fund ... contained in the Supplemental Sheet of the Hobart Town Gazette of May the 20th, 1825 states: 'Cash received from Mr Bent being for the like sum advanced to him on Loan by Government, for the Purchase of a Press', it does not appear to us that a very clear case of ownership to the Title of the Paper can be substantiated by them [i.e. the government]'.
(The issue of title ownership arose when a new newspaper, under the name of the Hobart Town Gazette, began publication in June 1825.)
The writer for the Australian is enraged at the publication in Tasmania of a newspaper using the name of the Hobart Town Gazette. (Andrew Bent's Hobart Town Gazette, and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser was still being published at the time.)
The Australian says: 'The appropriation of the Title of the Hobart Town Gazette to another Journal can be viewed in no other light than the forcibly taking possession of goods and chattels, without, as far as we can perceive, the most remote right so to do.'
The writer for the Australian argues that, since the 'Statement of the Colonial Fund ... contained in the Supplemental Sheet of the Hobart Town Gazette of May the 20th, 1825 states: 'Cash received from Mr Bent being for the like sum advanced to him on Loan by Government, for the Purchase of a Press', it does not appear to us that a very clear case of ownership to the Title of the Paper can be substantiated by them [i.e. the government]'.
(The issue of title ownership arose when a new newspaper, under the name of the Hobart Town Gazette, began publication in June 1825.)