Cylchgronau Cymru

story. The scene of several of his short stories is set in his native Merioneth, hence he also has a place in the history of Anglo- Welsh literature. The following quotation is taken from an account of The Early Tasmanian Press and its writers by E. Morris Miller in Across the years: the lure of early Australian books, edited by Charles Barrett. Melbourne: N. H. Seward Pty. Ltd., 1948. The present writer would be pleased to receive further information concerning the Welsh origins and 'early life of Thomas Richards. Finally, we refer to the remarkable achievement of Thomas Richards, who contributed more than half the contents of the Hobart Town Magazine (1833-34). This writer is practically unknown to the present generation of Australians, all of his writings, except press correspondence, having appeared anonymously. Thomas Richards, born at Dolgelly, Wales, in 1800 and educated at Christ's Hospital, London, received a medical training, and gained the licentiate of the School of Apothecaries in 1823. In 1832 he migrated to Hobart as the surgeon of an emigrant ship. After a brief period of medical practice at New Norfolk, Richards removed to Hobart to take charge of Melville's Hobart Town Magazine, having had previous experience with London periodicals. About the time of the Gordon-Savery incident in 1833, he accepted from Henry Melville the editor- ship of the Tasmanian which he held for a few months only. Shortly after the magazine had ceased publication in 1834, Richards became clerk to the Town Surveyor and was eventually involved in a controversy with R. L. Murray over the administration of the Department. He retired about two years later and again combined the practice of medicine with writing. In 1877 Richards died at Hobart in the service of the Mercury. In an obituary notice he was referred to as the Father of the Tasmanian Press'. His wife, Hannah Elsemere Richards, also wrote poems, one of about 160 lines, nostalgic in feeling, entitled Home' (Hobart Town Magazine, August 1833, pp. 9-12), being above the customary level of the time in Australia. Richards has a place in Australian literature at its very portals. In fiction he was preceded only by Henry Savery,