The Capricornian, Saturday 15 June 1878
(Rockhampton, Queensland)

THE LATE SAMUEL BENNETT.—We (Courier) are indebted to our Sydney correspondent for the following particulars concerning the late proprietor of the Evening News and Town and Country Journal:—"The untimely death of Mr. Samuel Bennett has caused a widespread feeling of regret throughout the community. The cause of his death was tetanus, resulting from a very slight wound to the left hand from a hammer inflicted by himself while showing a workman how to do some quarrying. Mr. Bennett took little notice of the injury till about a week after he had received it, when the hand became so inflamed that he obtained medical advice. It was then too late. Very soon symptoms of lock-jaw showed themselves, and he lingered for five days, and died last Sunday (yesterday) morning, a little before eight o’clock, at his residence, Mundarrah Towers, Little Coogee, Sydney. Thus closed, in his sixty-fourth year, the useful, though somewhat chequered career of an honourable journalist and an upright kind-hearted man, just as he had commenced to enjoy the fruits of many years of toil. Mr. Bennett was a native of Cornwall, England, where he learned the trade of a compositor. He came to Sydney in the year 1841, and his first employment here was at his trade in the office of the Sydney Morning Herald, then owned by Messrs. Stevens and Stokes. He afterwards, when the paper became the property of the late Hon. John Fairfax, was manager of the printing department. In 1859 he and Mr. William Hanson purchased the Empire newspaper from Mr. (now Sir Henry) Parkes, who had started that journal in 1850. About seven years afterwards Mr. Bennett became sole proprietor of the Empire, and in 1867 he started the Sydney Evening News. A few years later the Australian Town and Country Journal was first published by him. The Empire ceased in 1875. Within the last four or five years Mr. Bennett reaped the abundant harvest as the fruit of his labours and enterprise. He was one of the few men who combine literary ability with a capacity for business. His most important contribution to the Press was his "History of Australian Discovery and Colonisation," first published through the columns of the Empire, and afterwards in one volume. This book, however, only deals with the history of the colony down to 1831, and the design of the author to complete it to a later period has never been fulfilled. In all the relations of his life and business he was a just and honourable man, and his hospitality to brother journalists will be remembered by many. He leaves a widow and three sons and one daughter. The management of the papers will devolve upon his eldest son.”

Contributed by Bob Bolitho