Bowers, P. R.

The New Era was a Charlottetown newspaper published by P.R. Bowers between 1874 and 1882. Bowers also published the Royal Gazette during the majority of these years.

The Royal Gazette, the successor to the Royal Gazette and Prince Edward Island Recorder, began publishing in August of 1830. For the most part politically nonpartisan, it printed proclamations, official government notices, verbatim reports of the proceedings of the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council, international news excerpts, fiction, poetry and local news. Local news reporting included descriptions of local events and meetings, and occasionally the annual reports of local organizations, for example, the Mechanics Institute. In 1851, following the appointment of Edward Whelan to the position of Queen's Printer, the Royal Gazette came to have a decidedly Liberal bias. The Coles administration was defended and the Conservatives attacked in the editorials of the paper. On February 24, 1854, John Ings was appointed Queen's Printer and the Royal Gazette reverted to its former nonpartisan stance. Even following Whelan's reappointment as Queen's Printer on August 1 of the same year, the Royal Gazette remained impartial, as it was to be from that time forward. During the late 1850s, the Royal Gazette mainly printed official government notices, such as proclamations, appointments and statutes, along with some foreign news, anecdotes and occasional items of local news. By the mid-1860s, everything except government notices had disappeared from the Royal Gazette. Between 1870 and 1986, the essential character of the Royal Gazette as the official government newspaper of P.E.I, did not change. Only the number of notices and the number of different types of notices changed, increasing as time passed. In the 1870s, the Royal Gazette printed mainly notices of appointments, sheriff's sales, proclamations, warrants, writs, statutes, tenders and land assessments. Insolvent's notices, partnership notices, and some court decisions began to be printed in the 1880s. By the turn of the century, court decisions had ceased to appear in the Royal Gazette, and executor's notices, administrator's notices, notices of dissolutions, sheriff's proclamations, Speeches from the Throne and lists of Acts passed at each sitting of the Legislature had begun to appear. During the 1920s, several new types of notices began to appear. These included mortgage sales, notices regarding letters patent, chancery notices and notices under the Voluntary Winding Up Act. Liquidator's notices and regulations began to be printed in the 1930s. In the 1940s, notice of annual meetings, notices under the Cooperative Associations Act and the Credit Union Societies Act, notices of rule nisi and change of name notices were all added to the types of notices printed in the Royal Gazette. In the 1950s, Temperance Act Convictions appeared, although they and the Speeches from the Throne both stopped being printed in the 1960s. In the 1970s, change of corporate name notices, government resolutions, amendments and proclamations, liquor control notices, and Quieting Title Act notices were all printed. On January 4 1975, the format of the Royal Gazette changed. It was divided into two parts: Part II contained regulations while Part I contained all other notices. During the 1980s the Royal Gazette added amalgamation notices and notices under the Companies Act to the notices it was already printing. The Royal Gazette is still being published today.

The Examiner was founded in 1847 by Edward Whelan. It printed news, anecdotes, fiction, poetry and advertisements. It was a weekly Liberal newspaper, crusading for Responsible Government and opposing the Family Compact. It favoured the Land Purchase Act and the Loan Bill as the means of ridding P.E.I, of its absentee landlords. During the 1850s, the Examiner supported the extension of the franchise and the Free Education Act.

In the 1860s, the settlement of the Land Question was the chief preoccupation of the Examiner. It opposed the Land Commission Award, suggesting other parliamentary reforms. Confederation was strongly advocated by the Examiner until 1867, when its founder Edward Whelan died. Thereafter, the paper opposed Confederation. In the final years of the 1860s, reciprocal trade with the United States was demanded.

During the 1870s, the construction of the railroad and nonsectarian education were the two main issues for which the Examiner fought. In 1873, when W.L. Cotton became the paper's editor and publisher, its politics became Conservative and attacks on the Liberals became freguent in its pages. Tariffs and reciprocity were often discussed. In 1877, the Examiner became a daily publication. The Weekly Examiner (see also) continued to be published alongside the daily until at least 1901.

The years between 1880 and 1922 saw the gradual decline of the Examiner. News reporting during the 1880s was good but by the beginning of World War I it was only minimal. Political commentary became less and less frequent in the paper, although it did remain Conservative until it finally ceased publication. Issues featured in the Examiner during these years included Liberal overspending and corruption, the poor rail and steam service to P.E.I., and temperance. Fiction ceased to be published in the early 1890s. In 1915, the Examiner was merged with the Charlottetown Guardian, and in 1922 it was absorbed by the Guardian.

Publisher note: Edward Whelan, Aug. 7 1847 - Jan. 11 1851(?); Feb. 27 1854 - Dec. 9 1867; Walter C. Grant, Apr. 13 1868 - Dec. 27 1869; Examiner Printing & Publishing Co., 1871 - May 17 1875; William L. Cotton, Aug. 16 1875 - Dec. 25 1876; Examiner Publishing Company, 1877 - 1914; J.R. Burnett, 1914 - 19155; Guardian Publishing Co.(?), 1915 - 1922.

Frequency note: Weekly on Saturdays, Aug. 7 1847 - Mar. 11 1848; Weekly on Mondays, Mar. 20 1848 - Feb. 19 1849(?); Feb. 27 1854 - Jan. 23 1860; Oct. 29 1860 - Dec. 25 1876(?); Weekly, Jan. 12 1850(?) - Feb. 16 1850; Apr. 14 1851 - July 7 1851; Semi-Weekly, Feb. 23 1850 - Apr. 10 1851(?); Weekly on Tuesdays, Jan. 31 1860 - Oct. 23, 1860; Daily, Mar. 21 1877 - May 29 1922.

It is unknown whether or not the Colonist was ever published.

Frequency: Unknown Footnotes: McAlpine's Charlottetown City Directory for 1887-88 (Charlottetown, P.E.I.: Charles D. McAlpine, 1887), p. 23.