The story of George Howe’s son …
AND THE PRINTER CRIED “MURDER !!”
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Robert Howe was in a
happy mood.
He had, he mused to
himself, so much to be thankful for. Soon he would be home with his wife, Ann, and their son. Well, .....his
son. The little fellow had been born before he met Ann Bird, back in those
early days he had spent in wild
carousing. To think ...that was
just three years ago. How his life had
changed. Not just due to his marriage last year but the Methodists ... that
English born sect so filled with
religious fervour ... had convinced him of the truth of the message they so earnestly proclaimed.
And all of a sudden he had found
a new dimension to life.
Then there was the
business. Prosperous! Booming ! It was only a year ago that his father had died
and he had stepped into those hard-working shoes. The Sydney Gazette was making a name for itself among the
colonists...and he was Editor. And Printer.
Editor and printer of Australia’s first newspaper!
Indeed, on that violent evening...June 15th.
1822... it was the only newspaper in
this new-born colony. He must have
wondered what the future held for such a vital industry.
And then his
silent reverie was suddenly interrupted.
A footstep.
A dark, shadowy
figure crossing the street. What is it that strange man has hidden beneath his coat ? It was too dark to see.....
Reminiscinces
Robert Howe
consulted the pocket watch that resided in his waistcoat . It was a little
before nine o’clock. He had just spent
an enjoyable hour at a prayer gathering in the Princes Street Methodist Mission hall . Tomorrow morning...Sunday...he would be
there again , with wife and child beside him, for the weekly church service.
Again his
thoughts returned to the way Providence had smiled upon him. Governor Macquarie had been so helpful since
I took over the paper . ‘Sufficiently competent to act as
Government printer’, that’s what the Governor had written to Earl Bathurst. His
chest unconsciously swelled with justifiable pride. And the new iron-framed Columbia
press I requested should be arriving
from England any day now. He smiled to himself. I’m
sure I don’t know how my father kept that old wooden one going like it did for
nearly twenty years. And the type! I explained to the Governor that the stuff
we used was ‘worn and defaced’. And he
assures me that the new type is on the
way.... what is that fellow doing?.....
Howe peered
through the darkness of the night at the suspicious character now walking a few yards ahead of him. The hat pulled down to cover his features.
The scruffy-looking overcoat with
something ...something...clutched tightly inside.
But again his
mind returned to those early days in
his father’s print shop. It really is
quite a remakable turn of events that my father...once a convict transported
from the Old Country for petty theft
had been chosen as the official Government printer. How old was I then ? ...let
me see...that’s twenty-two years ago since
Father and I arrived in this new land of opportunity. I must have been
five. By the time I was nine Father had
me working in his print shop. ( Is that fellow up ahead walking slower?)
And
there was that storm that nearly wrecked the print shop. Funny the things that
stick in one’s mind. I remember him telling me how he was revising some proofs
at the time when this fire ball...or whatever... he was never sure... knocked
him unconscious. And when he
‘came to’ he thought the place was on fire. But what he took to be smoke
turned out to be dust of lime and
mortar from the scattered brickwork.
And there was the time when the soldiers burst in to the print shop
looking for Governor Bligh. ‘Bread-fruit’ Bligh they used to call him... he
survived the mutiny on the Bounty but he didn’t survive very long as Governor of Australia ...
Suddenly the
man before him turned. A malevolent
scowl disfigured his features. Hatred blazed in his eyes. Howe froze. There was
something in the man’s hand... Robert
Howe saw a flash of steel in the moonlight and felt it savagely thrust
into his chest.
The Assassin !
Let associate
Editor, the Reverend Ralph Mansfield,
recount the story from the pages of the following day’s issue of the Sydney
Gazette .
“The dreadful cry of ‘Murder’ alarmed the
whole neighbourhood....but it was too late to overtake the cowardly assassin
who, concealed by the dark mantle of night, but too well eluded pursuit.” Howe staggered to the home of a Mr. Scott
who helped him on to a bed “in the
agonies of death”. The discarded
weapon was found nearby ... a rusty bayonet with a broken point and a
serrated edge. And stained “with
four inches of blood.”
Despite being
seriously wounded, Howe survived. Sometime later a drunkard named Davidson was
apprehended and convicted of the crime.
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Pioneering.
In the years
that followed gratitude to his God continued to abound in the life of Robert
Howe. He founded the Albion Press which issued a series of
religious pamphlets and books. Among these were the first hymnal printed in
Australia... Abridgement of Wesleyan Hymns
in 1821, and the first Church of
England hymn book seven years later.
There was an
excursion into the world of magazine publishing , again, Australia’s first, but
this failed to survive. The first volume of poetry by a native Australian,
Charles Thompson jun., rolled from the Albion Press ..Wild Notes from the Lyre of a
Native Minstrel.
A Free Press.
The Sydney Gazette “with its new and improved appearance” continued to flourish,
albeit under Government control.
“Articles and paragraphs were , as a rule, written by trusted and
subservient public officers and edited at Government House.” But all this was
about to change with the advent of The Australian , an independent
newspaper edited by a Robert
Wardell. Robert Howe’s ire was aroused. His paper, also, should be free
from Government constraint, he argued. And won ! October 15, 1824 became
“the memorable day when full liberty of the press was
officially granted by the Government.”
Now, instead of
being employed by the Government , the Government would pay him to include their
material. Until, that is, the Government decided to issue their own
Gazette! Although the pages of the Sydney Gazette were henceforth
thrown open for political discussion;
Robert Howe still defended the Government against the ‘belligerent opposition’ of The Australian and another new paper called the Monitor.
The Clash with Macarthur.
By the closing
months of 1925 another paper war
escalated ...this time against John
Macarthur, famous for introducing sheep into Australia. Both the Sydney
Gazette and The Australian agreed on this ...... that in
a certain money-making scheme, Macarthur was guilty of “deception” at the expense of the colonists.
Howe accused the latter as owing “his
eminence in society ... to the petty retailing of three-watered grog!!.”
( Sydney
Gazette Nov. 28: 1825)
To which Macarthur replied that the Editor
was “a wholesale dealer in shameful
mis-statements and malignant falsehoods.”
( Ellis p. 496)With ‘characteristic arrogance’ Macarthur threatened to
“destroy” him !! ( Scott p. 13) Dr. William Redfern, the most popular doctor in
the colony and a close friend of Macarthur even attacked Howe with a horse-whip
!! This same controversial doctor, it might be added, ended his days “in a
world of mental malady.” (Ellis. P.528)
The suburb of Redfern, south of Sydney , perpetuates his name.
Macarthur,
likewise, eventually came to a sorry end. He
was removed from the Legislative Council by order of Governor Bourke on
the grounds that he had “been pronounced a lunatic.” Two years later, still
insane, he died on April 11th. 1834. ( Australia’s Heritage. Vol 3. P.124)
Tragedy !!
Robert Howe’s
troubles were still not over.
It was on
January 29, 1829 that he and his four-year
old son who bore the patriotic name
Alfred Australia, and a man-servant , ventured forth in a small boat
upon the bay. In the vicinity of
Pinchgut a sudden storm capsized the
vessel and all three found themselves facing a watery grave. It is remarkable
to read that whereas the servant and the child survived, Robert Howe, although known to be a strong swimmer, perished beneath the waves. He was 33 years of age.
On Tuesday, Feb. 3rd the Rev. Ralph Mansfield wrote a glowing
obituary in the Sydney Gazette. “A more generous heart than Robert Howe’s
never beat within a human bosom – a more liberal hand never distributed to the
boons of charity. His purse, his pen,
his influence, were always ready for the cause of philanthropy. The widow, the
orphan, the destitute never sought without obtaining his kindest succour...” and
so it continued for almost a full page.
Five months
later news arrived that Robert
Howe had received that which he
had previously requested, the title
of “King’s Printer”.
( It is of
passing interest but sad to record that whilst
Alfred Australia survived this
ordeal, eight years later he was attacked by a shark whilst bathing his feet in
shallow water on the banks of the McLeay River. A man-servant “at the hazard of
his own life pulled him out of the monster’s mouth.” A leg was amputated but
tetanus set in and claimed the young
lad’s life. ) ( Ferguson. P. 72)
The Sydney Gazette continued with it’s high
“moral and religious” emphasis until it “expired” on October 20, 1842. And thus
was closed a fascinating
chapter on the Howe family’s
contribution to the craft of printing in
Australia.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Howes and their Printing Press. Edited by J.A. Ferguson. ( Sunnybrook Press
1884) This rare volume is kept in the
“secure room” at the Victorian State Library.
Early History of Printing in Australia
. No author given. No date. ( approx 1860. ) No publisher given. 8pp.
Kept in the “secure room” of Vic. State Library.
Sydney Gazette. Copies
available at State Library.
Australian
Encyclopaedia. (
Grollier Society.) Ten Volumes
1965.
Articles on G.Howe, R.Howe, W.
Redfern, R. Mansfield, etc.
Australian Dictionary of
Biography.
Edited by Douglas Pike.
Melbourne University Press. Two Volumes . 1966. Various articles.
History of Australia by Marjorie Barnard. ( Angus & Robertson
Pub. 1976) pp.629-631.
John Macarthur by M. H. Ellis Angus & Robertson. 1955.
Sydney’s Highways of History by Geoffrey Scott. (Georgian House) 1958.
Australia’s Heritage. Part 3 . Hamlyn Group Partworks Project. 1970.
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