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 590 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY The " Register" ^Y^HE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN REGISTER may not inaplly be described as an ^ entity. In all local history no man, be he a Sir Henry Ayers in politics, or a Sir Thomas Elder in industrial development, has so vitally affected provincial interests as the Rcj^istcr, and no public man can boast of so long, consistent, and progressive a record. The virile quality in this entity has percolated through every branch of endeavor, and no individual colonist has been so universal, so patriotic, so versatile in his service. While men have governed for a little space, and have disappeared to make room for others, the Register has continued as a pregnant force, a leader of thought, and a stimulative agency to all departments of usefulness. The history of the Register is, indeed, almost without parallel in newspaper literature. Firstly, its age is greater than that of the Province it was founded to assist ; secondly, it is the second oldest newspaper in Australia ; and thirdly, it takes rank among the oldest newspapers in the British Empire, or in the world for that matter. Most of the newspapers in existence in Great Britain at the time of its foundation have disappeared, the innumerable journals of the present day being of a much more recent creation. The mere fact that the Register was published anterior to the proclamation of South .Australia is sufficient to prove its right to the name of unique, and to be considered, as the Review of Reviews (October, 1893) says, "a complete, contemporaneous, unbroken record of the birth and life of an important Stale." The initial number bears the date of June 18, 18,36, under the name of the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register, and was printed by W. Clowes & Sons, Dick Street, Stamford Street, London. Messrs. Robert Thomas and George Stevenson were the proprietors, and both gentlemen afterwards assisted to a very considerable degree in founding the Province. Mr. Thomas was esteemed as an influential pioneer, and Mr. Stevenson, who had been associated with the editorial staff of the London Globe, did much useful work as a journalist, and as Governor's Secretary and Clerk of Council. That first number, issued 65 years ago, contains what information could be obtained of the distant southern wilderness for which the pioneers were bound, and also certain records relating to the arrangements that had been made for the establishment of a new settlement. Si.x weeks later Governor Hindmarsh left Elngland for South Australia in the Buffalo, accompanied by Mr. Stevenson and other officials. Mr. Thomas and his estimable wife had already sailed in the Africaine with a printing plant intended to be used in producing the paper. In November, 1836, the Afrieaine arrived off Kangaroo Island, and, in obedience to the instructions of the Surveyor-General (Colonel Light), was a few days later riding at anchor in the Holdfast Bay roadstead. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas were among that hardy band of men and women who waited on the beach at Glenelg for the arrival of the Governor, and for the selection of the site of the capital city. They and their family lived in tents and a rush hut in the midst of the camp, and, like the rest of the new arrivals, had to spend many weeks chafing in idleness. Messrs. Thomas and Stevens(jn were present at the official proclamation of the Province on December 28,