As private secretary to Governor John Hindmarsh (as well as holding a number of other government appointments) Stevenson espoused a strong party line in the pages of The Register.
He was also notoriously outspoken against those who disagreed with Governor Hindmarsh, and was taken to court many times for libel, and even once was attacked in the street by Robert Torrens in response to his articles.
The new publication incorporated the Government Gazette,[2] a useful source of revenue and guarantee of circulation previously held by The Register.It is needless to shew that up to this time we have had no Free Press in the Colony.
The Register of last Saturday informed the public, that upwards of twenty persons were buried in the Cemetery during the previous week, and that they had principally died from the slow fever, which it reported was prevalent.
This was probably due to the rush to the Victorian gold fields, when South Australia lost much of its male work force and the colony suffered an economic downturn.