a private tutor named Ford was appointed, when some recruits put in an appearance, but the enterprise finally fell through. Incidentally it may be mentioned that Cavenagh, the proprietor of the Herald, struck with admiration of the Boursiquot economizing fit, was disposed to follow suit, and consulted his overseer, Mr. John Ferres (the recent Government printer) on the subject. Such an innovation seemed to Ferres as unworthy and dishonourable to the trade, and he point-blank refused to be an accomplice. He further warned Cavenagh that if he persisted, and the proposition became a reality, it would eventually bring disaster upon his establishment. Cavenagh, who had a peremptoriness of manner bordering on offensiveness towards his subordinates, gave his deputy a fortnight's notice to quit, a mandate which, on further consideration, he saw fit to withdraw before a week passed over. The Daily News was afterwards in the market at an upset price of £3,000, and overtures were made to Ferres to take it, but he did not. The stock of working material was mcreased, and what is known as a Belper" machine was procured, which offered special facilities at the time for expeditious printing. Boursiquot continued to make the concern remunerative until towards the close of 1851, when the Argus, then a fixture in the newspaper world, purchased the Daily News, and all its surroundings for £4,200, and rolled both journals into one, so that just at the period when the astounding gold revolution was in its incipient eruptions, Melbourne was left under the protection of only two daily newspapers, the Herald and the Argus.
The Herald's first office of issue was a one-storey, one-room brick tenement in Elizabeth Street, now built on at the northern end of the Colonial Bank, whilst the printing was done in a weather-boarded structure situated at the Little Collins Street entrance to the Royal Arcade. The publishing branch was subsequently shifted to an adjoining cottage, and the whole concern was thence transferred further westward up the same street to a spot recently occupied by a rear division of the extensive emporium of Alston and Brown, where it continued until 1853, when it once more migrated, but this time to Bourke Street, part of the establishment of Robertson and Moffatt. In the vicinity its name is perpetuated as The Herald Passage—a thoroughfare which, though half-flagged, is certainly not the wholesomest in the inter-street communications of Melbourne. As a newspaper, it maintained a respectable position from the start, and as Cavenagh went on the aristocratic ticket, and was hand-in-glove with the Melbourne Club, it obtained a fair share of support. Furthermore, its proprietor, though in reality caring little for the Roman Catholics, ingratiated himself, to a certain extent, with them, and secured their patronage. He had for many years on his staff a Mr. Finn, who held high office in the St. Patrick Society, and this was another source of strength. Whilst Osborne continued as editor, the leading matter was good and readable, though the "leaders" were often inclined to drift into a lengthy verbose dullness which bored people. When Osborne left, Dr. Greeves was taken on as a job hand at so much an article, and though his writing was neat, smooth, and often telling, there was so much twisting and turning and trimming that much of its effect was spoiled. Mr. John Stephen would occasionally lend a hand; but he was idle, never properly thought out what he was writing of, and his contributions were often the standard measure of verbiage and nothing more. Instances occurred where Stephen would write half an article, strike work, and go away for the day. In such a fix Finn would have to do the finishing, and then Cavenagh's overhauling would so disfigure the work of the other two that the triple production when read in type would be simply incomprehensible. The Herald, however, compensated as far as it was possible for such defects by the extent and general scope of its news, for it picked up everything that was going, had occasionally important exclusive intelligence, and its summaries of English and colonial news were the best in Melbourne.
There were then no such conveniences as "Home" and "Colonial" correspondents to ship or telegraph cut and-dry abstracts of the events passing elsewhere. The mail arrivals were extremely irregular, considerable intervals at times happening in the receipt of English news, and a good summarist had to exercise the scissors and pen with both skill and judgment. The compilation of an English summary at midnight from a dozen numbers of the London Times, the journal mostly brought out by skippers of vessels (then the latest news-mongers) was, in reality, an unenviable recreation after all the ordinary day's work was done; and such an event was the reverse of unusual
