AustLit

Published serials, short stories and poetry by colonial authors, along with reviews of books, poetry and theatre. Also included works from English magazines such as the London Weekly Review, Blackwood's Magazine, etc.

The editor's 'Introductory Address' (Vol. 1, No. 1 March, 1836, pp. 1-2) states: 'The want of a Magazine, whose pages should be devoted to general literature, avoiding the stormy arenas of politics and polemics, and combining amusement with instruction, has long been felt and acknowledged. A work of this description seems at the present juncture particularly required. There is evidently a growing taste for reading in the minds of our colonial public; and to foster and supply that taste is the object at which we aim. In following up our plan we shall endeavour, as far as it is practicable, to avoid all invidious distinctions of classes, meting out justice to all. In our dealings with others, we shall invariably make truth our object, and charity our motive; the good of all classes shall find us a warm supporter, and the bad an unsparing censor. A portion of our pages shall be devoted to Original Articles on General Literature; and no pains shall be spared to render this division worthy the support we expect from an indulgent public. A second portion will consist of Extracts selected from the best sources of Periodical Literature, a regular supply of which has been ordered from Britain. The remaining space will be filled with Reviews of New Books - Colonial and British, Literary Notices, the Drama, and other varieties. We trust that in the exercise of our vocation as Critics, we shall ever be found to treat the productions of others with that fairness and candour, which restrains not the freedom of enquiry, nor contracts the limits of just censure. It now only remains for us to entreat from the public its kind indulgence towards our future labours. We shall spare no exertions to provide for our readers useful and agreeable entertainment. We have endeavoured to secure such literary assistance as lay within the compass of our power. And we call on all who feel anxious to remove from the land, whether of their adoption or their birth, the stigma under which it has hitherto laboured, to unite with us in endeavouring to render Australia "Great, glorious, and free, First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea." '