# 46200
LANG, George Dunmore (et al)
[PRESBYTERIANS IN NEW SOUTH WALES] Prospectus of a weekly paper, to be entitled “The Colonist.”
$150.00 AUD
[Caption title]. Beneath title: “Union is Strength”. Sydney : Printed by F. Mason, [1863]. Broadside (250 x 203 mm), lithograph printed recto only on blue paper; very mild sunning and wear at edges, but a near fine copy. Ferguson, 14446
This obscure prospectus for a Sydney newspaper aimed at the Presbyterian readership in New South Wales was published on 12 February 1863. For whatever reason, the paper – which was to be co-edited by politician George Dunmore Lang and was to have taken its name from his father John Dunmore Langs’ weekly, The Colonist (in circulation from 1835 to 1840) – never saw the light of day.
The first three paragraphs of the broadside set out the rationale for the new newspaper: the colony, unlike other parts of the English-speaking world where the population has a large Presbyterian component, lacks a ‘channel of influence’ in the local press. This has perhaps been due, it is suggested, to the factionalism that has existed in the Presbyerian Church in Australia in recent decades. With the prospect now on the horizon of unity returning to the Church, this new weekly would provide the Presbyterian community with a common outlet for both both religious and political intelligence.
The text continues:
‘It is proposed, therefore, to publish on Saturday the 4th April next, a weekly journal, to be entitled “The Colonist,” to circulate principally, but not exclusively, among the Presbyterians of the coony. It will be printed in the Demy Folio form, half the size of the present daily papers; and will therefore resemble in size, and pretty much in internal arrangement, the old Colonist of 1835, and the Atlas of 1844, two weekly papers by far the most influential in their day of any that have ever appeared in this colony.
Each number of the Colonist will contain one or more leading articles on the great poloitical questions of the day, with a sumary of the events of the week, and such political and and general intelligence as may be deemed interesting and important to the public. This part of the paper will be conducted by Mr George Dunmore ang, Member of the Tumut district in the Parliament of 1859, who has already had considerable experience in connection with the colonial press.
There will also be a certain amount of space allotted in every number for Religious Intelligence, in which the movements of religious bodies generally, but especially of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales and the neighbouring colonies, will be deteailed, with such remarks and comments as each case will seem to require.
The Colonist will be Printed and Published at the Office of the old Colonist of 1835, in Jamison Street, Sydney. Subscriptions Six Shillings and Six Pence per Quarter. Sydney, 12th February, 1863.’
Trove locates six copies (NLA; SLNSW; SLV; Macquarie University Library; Monash University Library; Deakin University Library).