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further ·behind improvements taking place in Public Health in Britain
and even in the sister colonies of Australia.
Intelligent , enlightened
citizens fretted loudly and impatiently at the slowness of official
action to take corrective measures, and dreaded what might happen if
nothing were done soon. At a Municipal Council meeting on February 23 ,
even the Mayor showed some impatience at the lethargy of his colleagues:
..... When we call to mind that it is now an established fact ,
proved by a host of medical and scientific witnesses - that the
presence of foul exhalations , whether arising from open cess
pools or emanating from animal and vegetab le impurities - from
ill-ventilated and ill-regulated slaughter houses - want of
water and want of cleanliness are such and all immediate causes
and aggravations of disease and death ; and that these evils are
capable of being subdued or at least materially relieved by a
system of efficient drainage, cleaning , ventilating and improving
buildings and above all by a copious supply of pure water, I do
hope this council will coincide with me in the importance of a
full and correct survey and plan of the city and its adjacent
districts being previously undertaken and that if requisite
an experienced and practical engineer be exclusively engaged
for that purpose. s ·
Habits die hard;
in spite of disease and death in 1853 and
1854, goats and pigs in large numb ers strayed about the streets in
March 1855 , and rubbish was tipped into the Rivulet which was the common
Town sewer .
Obviously, more personal, harsher, more insistent, more
dramat1c methods were called for if the necessary improvements were to
take place .
this course.
In April , 1855, a small group of Hobart Tm.·m men adopted
The group , composed of M. Miller, W. Milner, W. Robertson
and several others, started a newspaper, the Tasmanian Daily News , of
which Miller and Milner were the joint proprietors, with Milner as a
sleepng partner and Miller as manager and editor.
Although Robertson
and he others assisted Miller to start the newspaper, all pecuniary
profit ,
however large, - went to Miller and his partner .
In a letter which
Robertson wrote to Miller on May 28 , 1856, he clearly defined their
intentions :
We had but one ob ject in view, and that was by the establishment
of a thoroughly independent and high spirited journal which
would never flinch from speaking forth truthfully and fearlessly
upon all occasions to sweep away those class distinctions and
bitter jealousies which have been so long the bane and curse of
this colony. 6 ·
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Courier, February 26 , 1855.
Tasmanian Daily News, May 28, 1856.