User:Otherthinker/Illustrated Sydney News

The Illustrated Sydney News (Sydney, New South Wales) was a newspaper published weekly from Saturday, 8 October 1853 until 30 June 1855. The same title was published by new proprietors monthly from 18 June 1864 until 19 March 1872 when it continued under the title Illustrated Sydney News and New South Wales Agriculturalist and Grazier. and resumed under the banner of the Illustrated Sydney News from 1881 to 1894.

History
The first illustrated weekly magazine featuring engravings, news and literary items was The Illustrated London News (London) whose first number appeared in 1842. Eight years later, the first Australian title in the genre was the short-lived Ham's Illustrated Australian Magazine, published monthly in Melbourne 1850–52. Colonial titles published in the genre often referred to the Illustrated London News as the parent or mother publication even though there was no proprietorship in common.



Launch
In September, 1853, notices began appearing announcing a new publication: "On Saturday, 8th October, 1853, will be published, and continued weekly, price sixpence, No. 1, of THE ILLUSTRATED SYDNEY NEWS, a journal of commerce, literature, science, and art, profusely embellished with highly finished wood engravings, and printed with entirely new type. Parties wishing to connect themselves with this journal, either as agents, correspondents, draughtsmen, or in any other capacity, will please to communicate with the Editor, at the publishing office, Hunter-street, Sydney. Agent for Melbourne, Mr. Walsh, bookseller, Elizabeth-street."

The newspaper duly appeared on Saturday, 8 October 1853. Inside, the editorial presented the first number as an "attempt to establish in a young colony a publication resembling that which taxes the pictorial genius of a great and polished nation." It sought to create an exception to the general rule "that in young societies the useful sciences far predominate over the elegant arts" on the assumption that a "very large proportion of our population have had their tastes cultivated, and their intellectual faculties sharpened by European education and refinement." The editors declared themselves unaligned politically but committed to political freedom: "The arts are flowers that never bloom with such luxuriance as when they deck the soil of liberty." They committed their publication, first, to "the spread of Education" because a "great proportion of the youth of this colony is growing up in worse than barbarian ignorance" and "(i)ntemperance, profanity, and other vices are rampant, and the schoolmaster is comparatively deserted"; then, to "stimulate the dormant spirit of enterprise" reified as the "Railway, the Electric Telegraph, the Dock, and the Steamship".

Publishers
At first, the publisher was given as William Ross on behalf of the proprietors. However, some falling out occurred and a notice dated 6 February 1854 signed by W. G. Mason "for the majority of the Proprietors" withdrew authority for William Ross to act in the name of the paper. Within the month the previous business arrangement was dissolved and both William Ross and Thomas Lyle Ross ceased to be part proprietors; Walter George Mason henceforth would act for the business; a formal retraction of any imputation against William Ross by the notice of 6 February was issued by Mason and the printers, William Edward Vernon and Ludolph Theodore Medlin.

From February 1854 the publishers were given as Henry Marsh and Walter George Mason until this partnership was dissolved by notice dated 4 July 1854. From that date, Mason was the sole proprietor.

A. J. Evelyn, editor
A minor poet, eldest son of a Mayor of Waterford, who had studied at Trinity College Dublin, Alexander John Evelyn, was appointed editor soon after his arrival in the colony. After the News ceased publication he gained employment as a clerk with the New South Wales Survey Office but was dismissed. Believing the Colonial Secretary, Parker, to have been involved in his dismissal, Evelyn met Parker in the street where he horsewhipped him. For this assault, he was sentenced to six months imprisonment. Although released early, he took to his bed and died not long after.

The News published news from around town, the colony, the other Australasian colonies, Great Britain and abroad; it featured engravings of personalities, events and scenes (wildlife, landscapes, prominent colonial buildings); it also printed original creative writing. In this period, for example, it was the first publisher of the work of Louisa Atkinson.

Cessation
The News appeared weekly until 30 June 1855 when it published its own obituary: "we cannot bear comparison with our more illustrious contemporary in the mother country" referring to the Illustrated London News. The previous Saturday, the usual notice had appeared with the list of featured engravings, however, a few days later, the proprietors were offering the business for sale by private treaty including the types, press, printing machine, furniture, fixtures etc. together with the goodwill of the paper and the lease of the premises at 32 Hunter Street. The offer to take over the whole business as a going concern does not appear to have been taken up and the assets were offered for sale at first by private sale then by public auction. .

The demise of the Illustrated Sydney News appears to have given rise to two new, short-lived publicatons: six issues of The Illustrated Sydney Journal : a weekly record of news, science, literature, and art appeared in July and August 1855 and was seen as a successor to the former; and the Sydney Times, published by Frederick M. Stokes (one of the original proprietors of the Sydney Morning Herald) which acquired the 300 Illustrated Sydney News engravings.