The Chronicles of Early Melbourne/Volume 2/Chapter 58
CHAPTER LVIII.
THE NATIVITY AND NON-AGE OF MELBOURNE JOURNALISM.
SYNOPSIS:— The First Manuscript Newspapers. —Fawkner's "Advertiser." —The First Printed Newspaper. —Demise of the "Advertiser." —"The Port Phillip Gazette." —Arden and Strode. —"The Port Phillip Patriot." —Fawkner Redivivus. —"The Port Phillip Heraid." —Cavenagh and Kerr. —"The Weekly Free Press." —"The Times." —"The Standard." —"The Courier." —"The Albion." —"The Observer." —"The Port Phillip Christian Herald." —"The Church of England Messenger." —"The Melbourne Family Herald." —Mr. Finlayson and "The Temperance Advocate." —"The Victoria Temperance Pioneer." —"The Telegraph." —"The Melbourne Weekly Despatch." —"The Times" Gives Up the Ghost. —"The Herald" Changes its Name. —Its First Publication as a Daily. —"The Melbourne Argus." —Mr. William Kerr again at the Helm. —Sheriff's Sale of "The Melbourne Argus." —Demise of "The Melbourne Argus." —The First Appearance of "The Argus." —Wilson and Johnston, Proprietors. —Wilson Committed for Libel. —First Appearance of "The Argus" as a Daily. —Demise of "The Gazette."
NO branch of this work reveals more amusing reminiscences than the early journalism of the city, its humble origin, and the obstacles that beset the birth and growth of our first newspapers; the petty feuds and rivalries that distracted the little commonwealth of our "Fourth Estate;" the personnel, peculiarities and bickerings of the proprietors and editors; their abuse and "slang-whanging" of each other; and the narrow and distorted views they took of the responsible positions they filled. The proprietorial and editorial squabbles were, however, matters of little or no moment to the reporters, or "Recording Angels" of the period, who usually fraternized in the most agreeable way with each other; and so long as they got through their week's work, and drew their week's money, troubled themselves not a straw about the contentions of the higher powers. They were a light-hearted, easy-conscienced, free-handed lot, who cared not a jot about the atra cura, and all the troubles in its train. Regardless of to-morrow, they took each to-day as it came, and so made their pilgrimage through this world with an average share of its enjoyments. Many a queer and racy incident might be recounted of them, a few samples of which will crop up in a subsequent part of this notice.
The first Melbourne newspaper (as it must in courtesy be styled) was a miserable "rag," a sheet of what was known as uncut foolscap, ruled and bi-columned, and presenting eight columns of very inferior reading manuscript matter. It was brought out by the irrepressible J. P. Fawkner, who would be always first in everything, and the first number was published under the following style and title:—
THE
MELBOURNE ADVERTISER
PORT PHILLIP AUSTRALIA
No. 1, written for and published
By
JOHN P. FAWKNER.
January 1st Monday 1838 Melbourne
VOL. 1st.
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The "leader" is a most unique specimen of bombast and bumptiousness overlying a thin stratum of truth and prophecy, and as the oldest "Literary (?) Curiosity" in the colony, it is well worth reproducing in these pages.
Though generously promised to be "given away to householders" a charge of sixpence per copy was made, but in consequence of the manual labour involved in working it off, the circulation was limited to about a dozen copies, and the public, instead of indulging in a free read, as at present outside the newspaper offices, were obliged to go inside Fawkner's Hotel to ascertain the "latest intelligence," where they had the Advertiser as a counter-lunch, washed down by a shilling's worth of tipple.
A few numbers only of this "weekly" were issued, and I believe there is only one set of it in existence. Though not easy of access, I was fortunate enough to secure a perusal, and a cursory review of a periodical so rare and exceptional cannot be devoid of interest.
No. 1 (at least the copy before me) is wholly in Fawkner's handwriting, a legible scroll enough, but with a character that to a close inspection evidences a certain nervousness on the part of the quill-driver. It is a sheet of paper bisected with red lines, and consists of one leaf (two pages) and half a leaf, or one column, on the third page, the fourth being blank.
Some Assistant-Editor appears to have attempted a revision of several of the Fawknerian expressions, but only to render them mostly undecipherable.
No. 2 (8th January) shows some improvements in get-up, appearance, and penmanship. The foolscap is of better quality. The whole is in Fawkner's writing, and very legible, evincing no sign of the sub-editing disfigurement of the first number. There is an increase in advertisements, including a lengthy catalogue of commodities on sale at Batman's store. Some of those in No. 1 reappear, and of course had to be re-written, as there could be no "lifting of type." A Mr. Weatherly intimates that "he sells the best wheaten bread at the lowest possible price, and, to those who wish it, he allows one month's credit," an agreeable bit of intelligence, no doubt. A blacksmith and farrier (name not given) had his forge in full blast adjoining Fawkner's Hotel, south side of Collins Street, between Queen and Market Streets, and his advertisement tersely announces, "All work of the above branches performed quickly and neatly." The veterinary surgical fees are not stated, probably through professional delicacy; but some of the anvil prices are unmistakably specified, as "Horses shod, cash, 7s. 6d.; credit, 9s. 6d.; all other work in proportion." The Fawkner Library, previously noticed, appears to have assumed a circulating character, for the proprietor thus appeals to his constituents to roll up and wipe out the arrears scored against them:— "Those of the Subscribers who took Credit when they favoured the establishment [the library] with their Support, are most Respectfully informed that it is usual to Pay up all arrears at the beginning of a new year." Amongst the shipping items, the "Tamar" is reported as having, on the 7th January, arrived with sheep from Launceston, and by her came a Hobart Town paper. There is no "leader," to make up for which is a "Poet's Corner," embellished with an original effusion of two verses commencing
Oh! what a pure and sacred thing
Is beauty curtained from the sight.—"
and they are simply eight lines plagiarized verbatim from "The Fire-Worshippers," in Moore's Lalla Rookh!
The only local news consists of an unintelligible narrative of a murder committed by a convict named Cummerford, who is thus described:— "A light well-made youth about nineteen he has rather a prepossessing look and a very Mild Vice, small fine Neck and remarkably large Upper Head the lower part is very small and the chin recedes towards the Neck so as to make a very strange appearance when looked closely into." This "small fine Neck" was afterwards stretched by the hangman, for Cummerford was arrested by two bush-hands in the employment of Mr. Wedge—one of the earliest settlers—shipped off to Sydney, and tried and executed these.
No. 3 (15th January) is of same size and appearance as its predecessors, but written by an amanuensis. Some of the advertisements are repeated, others are new, and there is a "Poet's Corner," consisting of some commonplace unacknowledged stanzas in a moralizing and abstract style. The news items consist of a notice of the first overland mail to Sydney, a meteorological memo., and some shipping records. The following "Maxims" are given for general information:— "The triumph of woman lies, not in the admiration of her lover, but in the respect of her husband; and that can only be gained by a constant cultivation of those qualities which she knows he must value." "Few faculties more deserve or better repay cultivation than that of the Imagination—it is the soil whence flowers and fruits equally spring." To provide some light reading, and to exercise the ingenuity of the readers, an agreeable diversion is effected by the insertion of "riddles," viz.:—
- What letter of the alphabet goes all round Great Britain?
- What manufacture has an old hat had ?
- When is a boat not a boat?
- When is a man's face like a Jewish priest?
It is intimated that "any answers pertinent to the above will be gratefully received up to the 21st;" but it does not appear that any had ever been sent in. The following excerpta are copied verbatim et literatim:—
No. 4, 22nd January. The specimen before me is inscribed "Office Copy," and there is on it the clerk's marking of the advertisements for re-insertion or withdrawal. This evidently belonged to the filed set. After the first number, the leading matter seems to have dropped. This is a very poor affair, the most striking feature in it being a Fawknerian notice in this strain:— "To let A substantial Weatherboarded house, 27ft by 14, divided into Two rooms below and one upper Room the whole length it is well floured Bricknogged and plastered enquire of the proprietor." It also contains a sporting notice of an intended race-meeting to come off on the 27th at Fawkner's Hotel, and a couple of small shipping matters.
No. 5 is mis-dated January 1st instead of 29th, and shows no improvement. It has its "Maxims" and "Poet's Corner," and announces the arrival of the Sydney mail on the 28th, with newspapers to the 12th. There is also published portion of a notice from the Sydney Government Gazette (22nd November, 1837), relative to Immigration and the discontinuance of the Assignment of Convicts. It mentions that the Melbourne Races (the first) were to be run on the 7th and 8th March.
No. 6 (5th February) is more of a newspaper, for it records two or three occurrences, the most sensational being the perpetration of an outrage thus described:— "Sunday night or early this morning six prisoners of the Crown absconded from their respective Masters Taking with them a large Boat belonging to J. P. Fawkner and a Mariner's Compass." Amongst the advertisements is one of "£2 reward offered for black painted Boat with a red Streak Square Stern—Stolen from bank of river. Apply to Thomas Field." Doubtless both refer to the one transaction.
No. 7 (12th February) is bordered with a ruling of red ink, and the writing is Fawkner's own. The following, from the advertisements, deserve re-publication:— " Derwent Bank Agency.—The undersigned hereby gives notice that from Thursday next, the 8th inst., he will receive deposits, and discount bills and orders for account; and under the responsibility of the Derwent Bank Company at Hobart Town, V.D. Land. W. F. A. Rucker, Melbourne. 6th February, 1838."
"Intercourse with Williamstown.—The undersigned begs to inform the public that he keeps a boat and two men in readiness for the purpose of crossing and re-crossing passengers between Williamstown and the opposite beach. Parties from Melbourne are requested to raise a smoke, and the boat will be at their service as soon as practicable. The least charge is 5s. and 2s. each when the number exceeds two. H. M'Lean, Williamstown, 9th February, 1838."
No. 8, February 19th.—There is evidently a new hand, or rather a copyist, at the helm, as the writing is fluent, and as legible almost as print. The copy, however, is impressed with a melancholy remembrance of poor Fawkner, for written across the first page by his "vanished hand" are the two words "Parlour Copy," making it evidently the sheet kept for hotel use. The advertisements are on the increase, and include an official programme of the first Race Meeting to come off in the Province. No. 9 (26th February) contains some corrigenda of the Racing Prospectus issued in its predecessor, and revised schedules of articles for sale at the stores of Batman and Rucker. The only item of intelligence is the following, which is an average sample of Fawkner's composition:—
"On Friday last the 6 Bushrangers who some time past stole a Boat from this Town entered the Hut of Mr O'Connor's Station near Western Port and took 3 Guns one Pistol a quantity of Gunpowder and Shot Pr of Boots Some Flour, Tea, Sugar, &c upon Mr O. C. urging the danger of being left without firearms they promised to return two of the Guns and Pistol, they behaved very quietly and avoided all that Brutal conduct which so frequently Attends such exploits."
The "Poet's Corner" is garnished with a lay of "The Lover to his Intended," the first verse of which is so amorous or rather erotic in its phraseology as to render its production here undesirable. The last verse thus reads literally:—
"Sing me to sleep Thy Cadences
Shal be the music of the breze
To fill my sail and waft me on
Until some halcyon Shore be Won
While Love and Hope and Plesure beam
The guiding Stars throughout my Dream."
No. 10, 5th March, has a fair show of advertisements and nothing more. The boat notice of the McLean who ferried passengers from Williamstown to the beach is written one and a-half times. On the third page appears the following extraordinary "postscript," evidently scribbled in hurry and rage, by Fawkner, for it is in his handwriting, and in appearance very much as if his hand shook considerably while he was inditing it:—
"This number was not fully Written out
when press and Type arrived, and
No. 10 was printed,
But unfortunately was lost or
stolen, and so lost to
John P. Fawkner,
May 4th, 1838."
"John Pascoe Fawkner's Gift."
The First Printed Newspaper.
Whilst Fawkner was working away with his pen-and-ink sketcher, a rare stroke of good fortune placed him in possession of some used-up type and an old press, which had been superannuated in Launceston, and he was in ecstacies over the valuable "find." But though the "pica" was there, no regular "picanier" or compositor was to be found. After much hunting up a very "grassy" hand, in the person of a Van Diemonian youth, who, seven years before, had worked for a twelvemonth at "case" was ferretted out, and how he and Fawkner contrived to get the paper "set-up" is one of those mysteries which time has never unravelled. The Advertiser did, however, appear in all the battered glory of half-defaced type, and its first issue contains an agglomeration of news almost as seedy as the letter-press. The leader thus concludes:-"We earnestly beg the public to excuse this our first appearance, in the absence of the compositor, who was engaged. We were under the necessity of trusting our first number (in print) to a Van Diemonian youth of eighteen, and this lad only worked at his business about a year, from his tenth to his eleventh, 1830 to 1831. Next the honest printer, from whom the type was bought, has swept up all his old waste letter and called it type, and we at present labour under many wants; we even have not as much as Pearl Ash to clean the Dirty Type." I have met with but two numbers of the Advertiser in its altered guise. One is dated 9th April, 1838, as No. 15, vol. 1, and is printed in very abominable letter on some material resembling old half-baked coarse tea-paper. It is a small single sheet, not much larger than its first parent, but altogether a marked improvement in style. Its "get-up" could not be compared with any newspaper now in existence, but large allowance must be made for the circumstances and exigencies of the times in which it lived. It is all very well for the denizens of the present day, the readers of our morning and evening journals to laugh scornfully at the Fawknerian efforts, but the probability is that they would have done no better, possibly not so well, were they contemporaries of the plucky and redoubted "Johnny." The motto of the rehabilitated journal was "We Aim to Lead, not Drive;" and a "leader" regularly appeared but it was in reality little more than a paragraph. In the present instance the subject was a castigation of the Government for wharfage neglect. Amongst the advertisements are three, which as the first of the kind in the country deserve special mention. Mr. A. J. Eyre, of Collins Street, intimates his being about to leave the colony, and all claims against the firm of Wilson and Eyre, and himself personally, are to be rendered for adjustment, and all accounts owing settled forthwith. Christopher Poining had commenced as Town Herdsman, and is ready to take charge of milking cows or other cattle by the day or week. Terms 1s. per head." The first auction sale is thus launched upon public attention. "G. Lilly, Collins Street, offers for public competition some dairy cows, perfectly suitable for the use of private families—are perfectly quiet and gentle, having been broken-in at a large town dairy in Sydney;" also, "gentlemen's, ladies', and children's wearing apparel, after the cattle sale on 24th April." There is, likewise, a short summary of English news, and extracts from the Sydney journals. The paper now has a regular imprint of—"Printed and published by J. P. Fawkner, at the Melbourne Advertiser Office, Melbourne." The terms were 10s. per quarter if paid quarterly; if paid yearly 50s.; single paper 1s. Advertising: 45. for every advertisement not exceeding eight lines, and 3d. per line after. It is announced that the "columns of the Melbourne Advertiser are much wider than any other colonial newspaper."
No. 17, 23rd April, is enlarged to a double-sheet or eight pages, and gives a rather lengthy précis of English intelligence. The leader" advocates an increase to the Government Survey staff; and "leaderette" sets forth the wants of Melbourne, from a resident Governor to clearing the streets of tree-stumps. Both seem to have been written by Fawkner, but are revised by some mending hand, and the first is tolerably well done. Various items of colonial and local news are given, and there is an excerpt describing the "outbreak of Civil War in Canada." The Protestant Bishop of Sydney was then on a visit here, and some of his movements are chronicled. A. ship of war, the Conway," arrived from Sydney. There is a good show of advertisements, including a notification, the first of its kind, viz., H. Kettle, Painter and Glazier, who commenced business in Elizabeth Street, and hoped by strict attention to gain the support of the public." A reward of £2 is offered for the recovery of a lost gold ring engraved with a heart and cross; and H. Cooper had for sale claret and bottled sherry in three dozen cases, and Malaga sherry in casks. The imprint is transferred from the tail to the head of the paper, under the title; and the place of publishing is given as in Flinders Street. An elaborate scale of charges with conditions is put forward as a postscript in diamond type, viz.:— The paper was to be published every Monday; single copies, 1s.; quarterly (if paid when called for) 10s.; credit, 12s. 6d—only two quarters' credit given. Advertisements: Subscribers, 4s. for first eight lines, every additional line, 3d.; non subscribers, 5s. for first eight lines, every additional line, 4d. Advertisements received till Saturday evening at 6 p.m., but persons wishing to do so could, on paying an extra charge of 2s. 6d., have the privilege to "insert a short advertisement on a Monday morning before 8 o'clock p.m."
Mr. Bonwick, to whose interesting work I am indebted for some items of information about the Press up to 1840, supplies a few amusing details of the first three newspapers, the Advertiser, Gazette, and Patriot. The Advertiser no sooner appeared in an imprinted form than legal obstacles interposed, and led to its suppression. By the Colonial law, a printed newspaper required to be licensed, and the Advertiser was not licensed. The Press Laws of New South Wales were then 
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"The Port Phillip Gazette."
When the year was entering its fourth quarter, the first journal legalized in Port Phillip made its appearance.
Mr. George Arden had arrived in Sydney from England. He was young, well educated, possessed of considerable ability, and a fluent, though florid, writer. He and Mr. Thomas Strode, who had been connected with the Sydney Herald, determined upon trying their fortunes in the new Colony. They had not very much capital to start with, but managed to secure a used-up wooden press and a heap of old type, thrown aside by the Sydney Herald as utterly unserviceable; and with this valuable "plant" they arrived in the Bay on the 19th October, 1838. Strode repaired at once to Melbourne, but a sight of the stumpy, muddy, struggling, miserable township, so discouraged him, that he was on the point of returning the way he came, until two of the merchants, Messrs. John Hodgson and W. F. A. Rucker, made him such offers of encouragement as induced him to remain. And so he stayed and lived on amongst us during the lifetime of the Gazette, and for many a year after. It was so recently as May, 1880, that he died at a very advanced age at Richmond. The new firm of Arden and Strode had taken the precaution of obtaining the necessary newspaper license before leaving Sydney, but formidable and unlooked-for troubles awaited the inauguration of their new undertaking. Upon Strode's shoulders, as the printer, the most of them fell, and as an instance of the starting of a newspaper under difficulties, nothing can be more conclusive than the subjoined extract from Bonwick:—
"The glorious mountain of disordered type was deposited on the floor of a newly-finished house in Queen Street, between Bourke Street and the present Wesleyan Chapel (now the Bank of Australasia), Collins Street. No friendly compositor was near to help our adventurer; not even a 'printer's devil.' His worthy lady, like a good genius, came to the rescue. She could at least pick out a lot of 'bs' and 'ds.' But the type had to be cleaned, and where was the lye? After trying the ashes of various woods, the she-oak was found to be the best for the purpose, and pronounced a stronger alkali than soda, which was then 1s. 6d. a pound. The whole was sorted in the cases, the press was fixed, the stone was smoothed. Now for the rollers; the composition on these was so hard that the very axe failed to make an impression. With a bold heart Mr. Strode set about making new ones. But what was he to do for a cylinder, and not a tinsmith in the place?
"While at this harassing employment, his friend was preparing his articles, sorting type, procuring advertisements, and obtaining subscribers. With 80 names they had in Sydney, they soon showed a list of 300 copies secured. The eventful day came. Notice had been given that on Saturday, 27th October, 1838, at nine o'clock, the door would open, and the light pour forth upon the colonists. The little temple of the Muses was soon surrounded, and, in true English style, a battering attack began, because the Gazette was not quite ready. Doors and windows had to be securely barricaded. At noon the leaden images of thought had done their work, the crowd retired to read, and the poor unaided printer, exhausted with his wonderful fortnight's labour, retired to rest. "Mr. Strode must have been an enterprising printer. Among other shifts and experiments he contrived to make a roller of india-rubber, but the small quantity in town prevented him making one large enough for use. Eight years after, a London gentleman took out a patent for this discovery. Mr. Strode was the first colonial illuminating printer. At a loss for large letters in the early days, he had to cut all above four-line letters; and, after many trials, he found seasoned New Zealand pine to stand the sun and water best for his cutting. Beset with difficulties in 1839, when contending against Mr. Fawkner's weekly Patriot, and the drunkenness and insubordination of his two workmen, he performed a very miracle of labour. For six weeks he contrived, single-handed, to bring out his bi-weekly issue, without dummies, and without delay. The first finger was so inflamed with incessant picking up of type, that he had to employ the next finger. He allowed himself but two hours' sleep each night."
The first number of the Gazette was, under existing circumstances, a creditable production. Its motto was, "To Assist the Enquiring, Animate the Struggling, and Sympathize with All." It was a small four-paged publication, each page of four columns; had a show of advertisements, a very limited supply of news, English and colonial summaries of the latest intelligence, and a commercial corner. The "leader" was well written, but in it Mr. Arden hoisted a neutral flag, which, after no very long time, he found it necessary to strike. In this maiden manifesto he thus announces the course he then meant to steer:— "Politics, elsewhere the great theme of contention, particularly wherever the Press has room to exert its influence, will, in this instance, be held in abeyance; the yet comparatively infant state of our settlement affords us fair reason to withhold our direct interference or comments upon a subject so rife with disquietude; with those of other and distant territories, what have we in our industrious, painstaking, and money-making town to do?"
The first advertisement was about the "Firefly," a little steamer laid on between Melbourne and Williamstown. Mr. Lamb, the first barber, intimated his readiness to hair cut, and a Mrs. Lily was as obliging towards the public in the sale of baby clothes. The merits of two stallions, Romeo" and Young Clydesdale," were paraded by their respective owners, two "Johns," viz., M'Nall and Hodgson, and there were two Auctioneers, named Lilly and Hill, in the field. The principal store advertisers were W. F. A. Rucker, John Hodgson, J. M. Chisholm, and P. W. Welsh.
The Gazette appeared uni-weekly until April, 1839, when it was made a bi-weekly, and its charges were 10s. per quarter, or 1s. per number. Advertisements, six lines and under, 3s., and 3d. every additional line, each insertion. All "ads" were to be prepaid. Births, marriages, and deaths were inserted gratuitously for subscribers; otherwise to pay 2s. 6d. each. The first office was in Queen, and in December, 1839, it was transferred to Collins Street, next westward to the present Union Bank site, whence it shifted in a few years more westerly, and abode there until its demise. Occasionally it would issue a supplement, and on the 20th November, 1839, the following apology appeared in print "In consequence of some of our compositors being absent—Drunk—the supplement will not be published until noon to-day."
"The Port Phillip Patriot."
The indefatigable Fawkner was not to be beat; a newspaper he could, should, and would have; but delays of one kind or other supervened, and it was not until the 16th February, 1839, that his anxious dream was re-realized. For six months previously he had a compositor engaged at £2 10s. per week, and was at length able to set the man to work. Advertiser was too tame a name, and the resuscitated journal appeared under the more attractive and inspiriting designation of the Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser, with the following motto surmounting the leader column:—
"This is true liberty, when free born men
Having to advise the public, may speak free,
Which he who can and will, deserves high praise;
Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace;
What can be juster in a State than this?"
The locus of the Printing and Publishing Office of the Patriot having become a matter of some doubt, an amusing controversy on the subject was carried on in the Correspondence Columns of the Argus in November, 1884, and to this I am indebted for the following particulars:—
Mr. William Beaver, who was apprenticed to Mr. Fawkner in June, 1839 (and the first trade apprentice in Victoria), declares that the paper "was first printed in the top storey of Fawkner's Hotel (now the Union Club Hotel, corner of Collins and Market Streets). Mr. Fawkner having let the hotel to the Melbourne Club, the paper was shifted to a new two-storey brick building alongside (where the Colonial Mutual Insurance Society is now). A Mr. Rowe had a chemist's shop in the front room below. Some time afterwards the Patriot was shifted to an old range of wooden and wattle-and daub buildings at the rear, formerly used as stables, and the entrance to which was from what we used to call the Market Square, or what is now called the Market Buildings. The paper was published for many years in the before-mentioned building facing Collins Street.
"I was at work on the Argus when it was first published, and well remember the difficulties we experienced in turning out the paper. As an illustration of the difference between that period and now in printing papers, I may mention that when I first went to Mr. Fawkner's office we used to get out the Patriot with the assistance of Mr. Watkins, another compositor, facetiously called 'Tar-box,' and myself. Mr. Fawkner used to assist a little by setting up type. The press was a wooden two-pull one, and we used ink-balls for rollers. The old press can still be seen in the Museum attached to the Public Library, and I think it used to take us all day to print two or three hundred copies."
Mr. R. T. Clarke, who still plies the typo. business in Moor Street, Fitzroy, writes thus:— "Arrived in Melbourne on the 1st September, 1839, under an agreement with Mr. J. P. Fawkner I remained with him seven years, and am therefore in a position to give some information upon the subject. When the back weather-board premises were built I and my wife resided there. At that time Mr. Fawkner had only a wooden pot press, with two pulls. Mr. Dowling, of Launceston, sent him a double-demy press, with a plant of new type. That was the reason the premises were built."
During the year the two journals had the field all to themselves. It was Arden's intention to conduct the Gazette in a gentlemanly, high-toned style, but Fawkner's "Billingsgate" now and then forced him off his stilts into the mud, for he was compelled to resort to the same armoury for offensive and defensive weapons as his antagonist. If a man pelts you with puddle-balls it is folly to retaliate with flowers, either rhetorical or botanical. However, as between the two journals no literary comparison could be instituted, for there were at times in the Gazette leading articles, or rather essays, that would do credit to any publication, but as a newspaper the Patriot presented more variety of facts. As records of the events of the then small community neither journal was equal to the occasion.
I have now before me a copy of each journal issued in November, 1839. Neither can be accounted broadsheets, for the Gazette measured 17 in. by 11 in. and the Patriot only 13 in. by 8 in., but the former is a four-columned sheet, and the latter a double three-columned one. On submitting them for the opinion of a specialist, a printer of many years' experience, he returned them with the following memo.:— "It appears to me that both papers, viz., the Port Phillip Gazette and the Patriot must have presented a very creditable appearance when published forty-six years ago, as times then went, considering the great difficulty there must then have been towards all due and proper appliances for the purpose of producing a paper; as also the difficulty in those early days of securing the skilled labour to produce anything properly readable. The Patriot appears to be printed in some parts of its pages with already very old and much-worn type, with mixed founts, and with a bad ink, which makes it look worse still; but in those days this was not so much accounted of as now. The Gazette is printed from a better and newer type, and generally has a more printer-like style, and slightly more modern appearance in its general get-up than the Patriot, though both papers are of the same month and same year, and both produced in Melbourne in November, 1839. I cannot but think that, for those times and under all the circumstances, they were excellent productions." "The Port Phillip Herald,"
A third competitor for public favour, made its début on the 3rd January, 1840, and this caused quite a gust of dissatisfaction in the minds of the two others already in possession, who gnashed their typographical teeth, and vowed to make it hot for the intruder. The projector of the new journal was Mr. George Cavenagh, who had some managerial connection with the Sydney Gazette, and not only brought with him from Sydney all the mechanical means and appliances for newspaper "running," but a ready cut-and-dry Editor in the person of the Mr. William Kerr, already frequently alluded to in this work, and who soon took up a very prominent position in the early agitations of the settlement. In appearance the new journal was superior to the others, somewhat of same size a single five-columned demy-folio sheet. It was well got up, well printed, and, like the others, hoisted a cognizance in the three English words, "Impartial, not Neutral," a motto above all others in the Anglo-Saxon tongue, perhaps the most difficult to work up to. Its first "leader" embodied a profession of the journalistic faith, of which it was to be the expounder and missionary; but in this, as in other similar cases before and since, preaching and practice have been found to be very different things. "Being altogether independent of parties and partisans [so it prefaced]-in fact ignorant of any cause for division, we purpose pursuing the even tenor of our way, the only ends we aim at being 'Our Country's, our God's, and Truth's.'" Measures, not men, were to be dealt with, and should this rule be unavoidably departed from, there should be no descending to personal abuse. If reproof were necessary, the strictures to be administered were to be tempered with courtesy. There are two "sub-leaders," one of which indicated the probable early discovery of coal at Western Port. The Herald appeared for a short time as a weekly, but the trio soon were all bi-weekly, and their rates of subscription and other charges were much alike.
Melbourne had now its three newspapers, and for the first three months, their conductors observed the amenities of journalism though under evident restraint. This good behaviour was doomed to be shortlived, for the 1st of April had hardly set in when the three gauntlets were thrown down, and they pitched into each other with a will and in a way utterly disgraceful. It would be difficult to record who was the first transgressor, though I am disposed to debit it to the gentlemanly Arden; but it little matters, for they were all soon up to the ears in the muck; pounding and pelting and abusing each other mercilessly. The hostilities waged by the "Eat–and–swill" Editors so inimitably Pickwicked by Dickens showed decent warfare by the side of the Melbourne feud; and it would be a gross libel upon the memorable Daniel O'Connell and the Dublin fisherwoman episode to place it in the same category, for one of the talkers was grandiloquently verbose, and Biddy the "lady" was choice, though not super-polite in her repartee. An anthological garland might be woven from the language indulged in, but its perfume would savour more of the stews than the conservatory, for it reeked with the aroma of the Little Flinders and Bourke Streets iniquities, the Vinge's Lane of ancient, and the Bilking Square of modern times. They might be likened to an unwholesome group of street Arabs, quarrelling in the gutter, and scooping out filth from the channel-ways, with which they bedaubed each other. For the astonishment more than the entertainment of my readers, I present a few unculled samples. The Gazette stigmatizes the Herald as a "truly despicable journal;" and adds, "We thank our friend for having shown us the hole of the hypocrite, that we may thus drag out the unclean viper, and crush it with the armed heel of justice." The Herald declares that "deplorable spirit of personality and scurrility had displayed itself in the management of the Melbourne Press," whereupon Fawkner, over his name in the Patriot, denounces the Herald as "the most intolerant, bigoted, and lyingly censorious journal in the colonies—the greatest disgrace to the Melbourne Press." The Gazette compliments the Patriot as "an old woman whose low and impudent vulgarity would do no disgrace to the forensic abilities of a Billingsgate fish-hag," and designates the "Patriotic" effusions as "the senseless tirades of a blathering old b————h." The Herald dubs the Gazette as "this contemptible rag," and the Patriot to be "as base an ingrate as ever lived," whereon the Patriot classifies the Herald as a dung-hill cock." The Gazette is gibbetted by the Herald as a consummate ass," and the Herald is written of by the Patriot as "a mean-souled and malicious recreant," to which the Herald responds that the Patriot is a "regular whelp of the genuine cur breed." And so on ad nauseam for several years. The first of the three papers to get into legal trouble was the Gazette, the Editor of which was convicted of libel, before the Court of Quarter Sessions, on 15th May, 1839, and sentenced to 24 hours' imprisonment with a £50 fine. In this prosecution the complainant was the Mr. Rucker previously noted as one of the two individuals who were instrumental in deciding the wavering mind of Strode, the Gazette co-proprietor, when he pondered on the Melbourne Wharf whether he should remain here or return to Sydney. The casus belli was a rent dispute between Arden and Rucker, and a caustic plaister by the newspaper man, which acted as the reverse of a receipt in full. The Gazette was embroiled in another kindred difficulty in 1840, for accusing the Chief-Constable ("Tulip" Wright) with having had bricks made for his own use by convicts in Government service, and further insinuated that the "Tulip" had appropriated a quantity of the same material from a Government kiln. On the 4th April Mr. H. N. Carrington, Wright's Attorney, applied to the Police Court to issue a warrant against Arden and Strode, the Gazette proprietors, for the publication of a libel. This was granted, and on the police proceeding to execute it on Arden they were obstructed by a Mr. Jamieson, the result being that both Arden and his friend were transferred to the lock-up, but enlarged on bail. The matter was afterwards amicably arranged.
Early in 1840 Mr. Fawkner retired from the editorship of the Patriot, and was succeeded by Mr. J. P. Smith, an attorney. Fawkner remained as proprietor, and was a frequent contributor to its columns, sometimes signing his full name, but oftener as "J.P.F." His father, who lived in Melbourne for a few years, was credited with the authorship of some wild, incoherent, though often pithy effusions, to which used to be suffixed the nom de plume of "Bob Short." Kerr and Cavenagh did not long continue. in amicable relations at the Herald, and Kerr passed over to the Patriot in the beginning of 1841, vice Smith, who betook himself to the more congenial rôle of Police Court practitioner. There had arrived in Melbourne a Rev. Thomas Hamilton Osborne, a Presbyterian minister from Belfast, the North of Ireland capital, who abandoned the pulpit and joined the "Fourth Estate" as Assistant Editor of the Gazette, from which he seceded after some time, and was succeeded by Mr. John Stephen, an early Secretary of the Mechanics' Institute, and in the future a Melbourne Alderman. Osborne's services were secured by Cavenagh for the Herald, which he joined towards the close of 1840, and so remained for a couple of years. In December, 1840, an effort was made to establish a comic publication, which was thus announced:—
FIGARO! FIGARO! FIGARO!
ON Saturday week will appear No. 1, to the continued weekly (with a wood-cut illustrating a certain character),
FIGARO IN MELBOURNE.
"Satire's my weapon."
Those who desire to laugh amidst the gloom of Melbourne will become readers of this publication, and those who desire to cry will shun the paper as they do the devil.
Subscription—Seven Shillings and Sixpence a Quarter; single number, Eightpence.
Office—Mr. Dick's, Jun., Collins Street; orders from William's Town to be left for the Editor at the Albion Hotel, opposite the Queen's Wharf.
Vivant Regius et La Trobe.
The first number of this embryotic Punch was to make its appearance positively on the 26th December, but the services of the literary accoucheur were never required. As it was never born, it could not have been said to have ever died.
In May, 1841, the Gazette announced its enlarged form thus:— "The proprietors confidently anticipate that its (the Gazette's) political principles, its material construction, and its elaborate management will place it above competition, and that as a literary, political, and domestic, commercial, scientific, nautical, pastoral, agricultural oracle it will be at once unrivalled and incomparable."
The next casus belli was the question of circulation, each contending that it had the largest, and sub leaders and paragraphs, letters from printing overseers, and even statutory declarations, were put forth in support of the numerical superiority of each newspaper. A few years after I had personally special facilities for obtaining reliable information upon this point; and so formed the impression that in 1841, the three Melbourne newspapers were not far apart, as the Herald circulated about 700 copies, the Gazette, 650; and the Patriot, 600. This was then deemed quite a paying state of business, as the expense of bringing out a paper was small from the fewness of hands and moderate rate of pay. A considerable proportion of the incomings resulted from advertisements, especially the auctioneers, who were then masters of the situation, and were, on the whole, liberal and impartial enough to the three so-called organs of public opinion. I may state that until the era of the goldfields there was no such thing as a street-hawking of papers, nor bellowing boys running about like roaring demons through the streets, yelling out the latest edition of so-and-so; and even no town agents. Each office had attached to it a staff of urchins paid by the week, who attended every morning, and took out their rounds, delivering the papers only at subscribers' houses, and doing it with the taciturnity, but not the speed, of our modern letter-carriers. Papers were also hardly ever sold over the office counter, certainly never in any number worth mentioning.
In July, 1841, Arden and Strode dissolved partnership, the former becoming sole proprietor, and he contrived to keep aboard until 1842, in the September of which year he was wrecked amidst a squall of writs and executions, too potent to be withstood. There was first a composition with creditors, and next an absolute sequestration of estate. The creditors appointed Dr. Greeves as Editor, but the back of the paper was broken, and though it continued to live, it lost all its animated smartness, and was not of much account. Mr. Thomas M'Combie afterwards acquired some share in the shaky concern, and in October, 1844, he purchased the sole copyright for £85. It is to be regretted that there are no complete files of the three old Melbourne newspapers in existence. Three volumes of the Gazette (from 27th October, 1838, to December, 1841), were sold for £50 by Mr. Strode, in 1874, to the British Museum, whither they were transmitted. They were previously offered to Sir Redmond Barry for the Melbourne Public Library, but declined for the price, which was a mistake. So far as Victoria is concerned, there is no such thing as regards Gazette, Patriot, or Herald. In the Public and Parliamentary Libraries there are files of the Herald, commencing with the first number, but at every few numbers there is a hiatus, either the nip-out of a paragraph or an advertisement, or a half-column or column, and so going on to a whole issue, and sometimes more. Considering the present status of our colonial Press, it is to be regretted that the humble, but not unpretentious pioneers from which it has sprung, should in their entirety, have no resting place on the shelves of any of our literary institutions.
In addition to the papers before enumerated, there were others, small, uninfluential weaklings, merc ephemerals. The first of this fry was the Weekly Free Press, a professedly Roman Catholic organ, a puny hebdomadal, started 1st July, 1841, by a Mr. James Shanley. It was supposed to be edited by Dr. Greeves, and subsequently by a Mr. Adam Murray, but after a miserable existence of three months it died, and its remains, consisting of the smallest of plants and a nominal copyright, were bought by Mr. Thomas M'Combie for £90. In April, 1842, the Times was started by Mr. Ryland J. Howard, the ex-publisher of the Herald, and, published every Saturday, ran for two years, expiring in 1844. Its motto was "The Welfare of the People is the First Great Law." It was a well-conducted paper, in consequence no doubt of its management having for a time fallen into the hands of Mr. Osborne after he broke with the Herald.
The Standard, a bi-weekly journal, was started in 1844 by Mr. George D. Boursiquot and amalgamated with the Patriot, 1st October, 1845. It was clever, pungent, and sparkling during its brief existence.
On 6th January, 1845, Mr. Samuel Goode started the bi-weekly Courier, and in June, Mr. W. Kerr assumed the Editorship, and promised to achieve wonderful results. It was the most libellous publication ever issued in the colony and was never out of trouble. Kerr was twice publicly pummelled in the streets for the insertion of scurrilous personal paragraphs. It managed to survive little more than a year, when Kerr was driven into the Insolvent Court.
In December, 1847, Goode was again taken with a newspaper mania, which ended more disastrously than his Courier venture. He established the Albion, a filthy weekly rag. It was supposed to be written by Kerr and Curtis, the Editor and Reporter of the Argus, and in March, 1848, Goode was prosecuted for an outrageous slander upon Mr. Sidney Stephen, a Barrister, and sentenced to two months' imprisonment. The Albion, as a consequence burst up.
In 1848, Mr. Colin Campbell started a weekly newspaper known as the Observer. It was an extreme "Squatting" organ, and its "leaders" were so lengthy, laboured and flatulent that the Editor acquired the equivocal distinction of being dubbed the "creature of large discourse." Considerable literary ability was shown in its composition, but the paper did not take as expected, and was discontinued after the issue of several numbers.
The religious journals made a commencement in 1846, when the Rev. James Forbes initiated the Port Phillip Christian Herald, to which several clerics contributed, and it was very ably conducted, contrasting favourably by its moderation with the infuriated bigotry of other Christian periodicals afterwards published. In January, 1850, through the exertions of Bishop Perry, and the Rev. D. Newham, the Church of England Messenger, was floated, and received considerable support from the denomination whose spiritual interests it represented. It was printed by Mr. Benjamin Lucas at his shop in Collins Street, near the Argus Hotel, and issued monthly.
During the first decade that elapsed in the newspaper life of Port Phillip, all things considered, it cannot be denied that much progress was made, for at the commencement of 1849, the following journals were in existence in the district, viz., Melbourne, the Patriot re-named the Daily News, and the Herald (dailies), the Gazette (tri-weekly), the Argus (bi-weekly), the Church of England Messenger (weekly), and the Christian Herald (fortnightly). In Geelong were the Advertiser, established, November, 1840, by Mr. J. P. Fawkner, first as a weekly, and now a tri-weekly; the Corio Chronicle (a bi-weekly), and the Victoria Courier (a weekly); and Portland, with its Guardian, as a bi-weekly, and Gazette, once a week. Subsequently the Corio Chronicle, originally established by Messrs. W. Beaver, and W. Clarke, was transformed into the Victoria Colonist, and published bi-weekly for Dr. Thomson, of Geelong, where also Mr. Thomas Coomb issued the Omnibus; whilst Portland substituted a Herald for a Gazette, and Belfast secured its Gazette, edited and published by Mr. T. H. Osborne. In June, 1850, the Melbourne Family Herald, a weekly journal, price 3d., was commenced by Mr. Henry Hayden, and continued for some time by Mr. Craig whilst about the same time Mr. Graham Finlayson[1] initiated a Temperance Advocate, a short-lived well-meaning print, which was succeeded in August by the Victoria Temperance Pioneer, of almost equally brief duration. The Telegraph, a spitefully-written weekly, teeming with scandalous innuendo, and filtered filth, made its appearance, but was as short-lived as it deserved. In April, 1851, Mr. Goode, undeterred by previous reverses, started the Melbourne Weekly Despatch, only to witness another failure.
After this unavoidable chronological digression, I shall return to the three primary journals, and briefly recapitulate what the future had in store for them.
The "Gazette,"
After getting into the hands of the Philistines, through the indiscretions of Arden, was secured as a bargain from Arden's creditors by Mr. Thomas M'Combie, who long had a hankering to become a newspaper proprietor. He worked away at it assiduously and economically, and though it never commanded much political or other influence, a number of the colonists who had become acclimatized to its dullness continued their support; and as the advertising community was generous of its patronage, the Gazette contrived to eke out a precarious existence for several years. From a bi-weekly it advanced to a tri-weekly, and on the Fool's Day of 1851 it was expanded into a daily, with its name transmuted into that of the Times, having Mr. William Kerr as Editor-in-Chief, and M'Combie as Assistant. After officiating in his new capacity for two and a half months Kerr abdicated the editorial chair for the Town Clerkship of Melbourne. M'Combie took his place, but on the 30th June the Times, née the Gazette, gave up the ghost, and its goodwill with subscription-list was purchased by the Daily News, née the Patriot.
The "Patriot"
Continued for some years under the editorial fosterage of Mr. W. Kerr, who knocked out the Fawknerian epigraph "Vincit Amor Patriæ," and displayed as his literary legend the John Knoxian quotation which still lives in Melbourne as The Argus motto, "I am in the place where I am demanded of conscience to speak the truth, and, therefore, the truth I speak, impugn it whoso list." In 1845 Fawkner was driven, by stress of weather, into the Insolvency Court, when his father, known as "John Fawkner, senior," purchased the paper, and Kerr's services were dispensed with. Prior to this time it had become a tri-weekly, and it now fell back to a bi-weekly. "Johnny" Fawkner was the editor, and queer work he made of it. Of his "leaders," it must be admitted that if they neither instructed nor edified, they most intensely amused, and as even this was a consideration, the good-natured people read, laughed, and affected to be satisfied. Fawkner was also a sort of spoiled child with the old colonists, and even those who thoroughly disliked him, and often repelled his ill-bred arrogance, were ever ready to concede a large latitude to the man who by common repute shared with Batman the honours surrounding the foundation of the Settlement. Batman was dead, and "Johnny" was not only alive, but poking his nose into every public movement, from Anti-transportation to Separation. The prestige that would have to be divided between him and Batman had he lived, was not unnaturally claimed by Fawkner, and as he had a finger in every pie, and was jumping about like a squirrel wherever there was anything astir, either at a fire or a public meeting, an election or a street row, a public dinner or a charity sermon, he was accorded a certain toleration which clothed him in a privilege that fell to the lot of no other man. His illiterate vapourings and ungrammatical jargon, his disconnected rhodomontade and unpunctuated rubbish, was consequently swallowed, until a special editor was secured from Sydney, in the person of Mr. James M'Eachern, a New South Wales journalist, and a writer of considerable power.
Kerr having received his congé from the Patriot, vowed vengeance, and started off to Sydney for the special purpose, as his friends gave out, of raising the wind for the establishment of a new daily paper. When he should come back and do so, the Melbourne journals might look out. Rumours to this effect so frightened the Fawkners (père et fils) that in order to forestall Kerr, they brought out their journal as the first morning newspaper in Melbourne on the 15th May, 1845. In June Kerr returned, but whether from a failure in levying sufficient supplies, or for some other reason known only to himself, his so much vaunted "daily" was to be curtailed to a tri-weekly, which he set about launching without much delay.
The Patriot continued under the Fawknerian régime until the 1st October, when Mr. G. D. Boursiquot became its proprietor, incorporated the Standard with it, and changed its designation to the Daily News. Under the new management it was worked at the least possible expense, and, as a vehicle of passing events, was insufficiently reported, and not unfrequently a rather inane sheet. Its assumed motto was the quotation, "To show the very age and body of the time, its form and pressure." Boursiquot, however, could write flashy, superficial, readable articles, at which he wrought hard, and so managed to keep the paper going, and wrung handsome profits out of it. In 1850 the newspaper proprietors and compositors in Melbourne had a large "bone" to pick together, the difficulty—no unusual one-being the question of wages: 8d. per thousand was then the rate of remuneration, and a competent "stab" hand received £1 15s. per week. A rise in both rates was demanded, and Boursiquot not only resisted, but retaliated by organizing a kind of cadet establishment, where "young gentlemen of education" would be instructed in the art of printing. This thing was managed rather privately until such time as the 'prentice boys were able to work, when the regulars would be summarily cashiered. A secluded cottage was rented in Fitzroy, where some type was mounted, 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 in the olden times. The Herald was the worst edited, but the best sub-edited and reported newspaper up to 1851.
Cavenagh, fussy and in appearance energetic, had not much backbone, though on one or two occasions he put on a spirt by which he obtained a small reputation for pluck. He was the first to obtain intelligence of a race-meeting in Geelong on the night of the day on which it came off. This was effected on horseback by a shipping reporter named M'Grath, hereafter to be referred to. Cavenagh entered upon a more spirited though not very large undertaking in 1846. The bi-weekly overland mail from Sydney arrived at Kinlochewe, about twenty miles from Melbourne, late in the evening, staying there that night, and starting the following morning in time to have the mail delivered in Melbourne by nine o'clock. Cavenagh was so irritated that he very smartly organized a mounted express to leave Kinlochewe on the arrival of the Sydney mail, and by obtaining a loose bag from the Sydney Post Office, had his letters and papers between 3 and 4 a.m., and so far forestalled the others that he could print the news in his regular Tuesday's issue, and had his Friday's "Extraordinary" out before the other papers. The Argus was soon obliged to get an express of its own. The Herald contractor was a Mr. R. H. Budd, a Kinlochewe publican, whilst the Argus express was ridden by a Mr. E. M. L. Smith, an ex-shipping reporter. Budd and Smith had rough journeying of it, but the former was the better bushman, and never came to grief. One wet boisterous night the two equestrians had a miserable trip, and on the way Budd's companion was suddenly pulled out of his saddle, and on Budd looking round to ascertain the cause of the unexpected disappearance, found the other very uncomfortably "up a tree," and, bidding him good morning, left him to follow as best and when he could. The night was dark. Budd was more accustomed to the road or thoroughfare than Smith, who got entangled in an overhanging bough, and was so placed "horse de combat." When Budd arrived at the Herald, and recounted the occurrence, there was much rejoicing thereat, for the Argus would be for the nonce minus its "Express" news. This arrangement, unwelcome and inconvenient to all the newspaper employés, continued in force for several months, when some post-office alterations were effected by which, instead of the 9 a.m. arrival, the Sydney mail was due at the Melbourne Post Office at 4.30 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays. The Kinlochewe "Expresses" were consequently discontinued.
At the beginning of 1849 the Port Phillip Herald changed its name SO as to be the "Melbourne Morning" instead of the "Port Phillip," and was published as a daily. Towards the close of the following year it procured the first steam-printing press introduced to the Australian Colonies. This was a "Napier Improved," which was imported per the "Brilliant," from London, on the 5th October, 1850. It was adapted either for manual or steam propulsion, working off by hand, within an hour, eighteen hundred copies of a paper twelve columns larger than the size of the then Melbourne journals, and by steam it could do three thousand. Cavenagh remained sole proprietor until the colony had got well into the astounding and unexpected anomalies emanating from the goldfield discoveries. The position at length grew too much for him, and in a couple of years infusions of new blood and money were taken into the concern, and though there was ability in abundance, the tact, business management, and skill of economizing within reasonable bounds were wanted, and the paper lost the position it had for many years held. Fortune at length deserted it, and passed over to the Argus, which, in the end, had an easy victory in the championship. In its financial adversity, Cavenagh was compelled to abandon the old ship, and he died near Melbourne some fifteen years ago. Amongst all the early newspapers, the Herald had the advantage of being the most amply equipped office, and for ordinary journalists and jobbing purposes it was decidedly superior to any of the then existing Colonial establishments.
"The Melbourne Argus."
Mr. William Kerr, who was connected with the defunct Courier, was a man who had had some grand opportunities thrown in his way, but he abused them. The ball was more than once at his foot, and he kicked it so unskilfully, that he tumbled head-foremost over it. His position in the City Council, the clannishness of the old Scotch party, and the Orange sympathies of the North of Irelanders, added to the political influence he undoubtedly commanded, might have made him a power in the land, if employed sagaciously and within reasonably prudential limitations. But this was not to be. For a Scotchman, Kerr's rashness was unaccountable. He was merciless to his foes, and as for quarter, there was no such word in his vocabulary. Still, he could cringe at times, when it suited his purposes, and once, whilst Town Clerk, accepted a free gift of £100 from Mr. J. T. Smith, the Mayor, whom he heartily detested, and libelled a hundred times in his newspapers. His friends now resolved to give him a fresh start, by sending round the hat to raise money to enable him to establish a new journal, and amongst the subscribers was Mr. Henry Moor, the old well-known Mayor-yet he was one of the first against whom Kerr turned, viper-like; but the eleemosynary paper was afterwards smashed up by verdicts obtained by Moor in libel actions. The new project was a bi-weekly newspaper known as the Melbourne Argus, and garnished with the "Conscience to Speak the Truth" motto, the copyright of which Kerr brought away with him when he left the Patriot. It made its first appearance on the 1st June, 1846. There never was a more personal paper in Melbourne, for Kerr could not exist as a journalist without offensive personalities, and during his two years' editorship of it, he was never out of trouble. Moor was vilely assailed, and the particulars of the two libel actions brought by him are given in a previous chapter. On the 8th May, 1848, there was a Sheriff's sale of the paper to satisfy the verdict and costs of action No. 1, and the property was bought in for £350, by Mr. John Duerdin, one of the old Attornies. Kerr was given another chance by his too-trusting friends; but, instead of his first rebuff bringing him to reason, it only made him worse. The Moor libel racket was recommenced with increased bitterness. Another action followed, and the satisfaction of another verdict led to another knocking down. On the 26th August, 1848, the press and types were again in the clutches of the Sheriff, who was to sell off again in a few days. It is stated in a Melbourne paper that, prior to the second levy, the property had been transferred to Mr. Edward Wilson. An interpleader was taken out, and the question argued in the Supreme Court, when judgment was given affirming that, in the then existing state of the law, the press and types by which a libel was sent out on the world were liable to be disposed of to cover the verdict. The Sheriff's sale was held on the 2nd November, Mr. David Lyons, late of Brighton Road, officiating as auctioneer, and the lot was knocked down to Mr. Wilson for £300. And so died the Melbourne Argus in Collins Street East, where it was born, and in the place occcupied by its successor to the present day.
"The Argus"
The Argus made its first appearance under Wilsonian auspices on 15th September, 1848. From its figurehead the word "Melbourne" was effaced; it was simply The Argus, with the John Knoxian declaration about truth-speaking, beneath the fabled hundred eyes. It was at first a bi-weekly, and Kerr's name continued on the imprint for the first twelve numbers (six weeks). Edward Wilson's name was imprinted for the first time in No. 13 (27th October, 1848.)
Previously there was little known of Mr. Wilson, except that he was an estimable English gentleman, settled near Dandenong, on a small station, which he held with Mr. J. S. Johnston, a Melbourne innkeeper, who, by smartness of tongue, and a happiness of repartee, had made a position for himself in the City Council, and as an effective speaker at public meetings. Wilson's first essays in print were some lengthy, well-written letters to the Melbourne Argus, under the pseudonym of "Iota," which attracted considerable attention; and now that he had assumed the editorial mantle his friends predicted of him a future which was fully verified. His station partner joined him in the new speculation, and the newspaper firm was known as that of Wilson and Johnston. Mr. Kerr continued some literary connection with it, but Wilson was the animating spirit as well as principal writer. It was worked very much upon the same lines as the original Argus, but broader in its political views, more decently conducted, yet often as personal, though much less slanderous, for the new proprietary had taken over some of Kerr's sympathies and antipathies. But it was far more cautious in the libel business, and steered clear of the breakers of the law until early in the following year, when on the 4th April Mr. Wilson was committed by the Police Court for trial, as the publisher of a libel on the Resident Judge (A'Beckett). The article complained of was not an ordinary newspaper attack, but a speech delivered by Alderman Johnston in the City Council on the 1st December, 1848, in which a judgment of the Supreme Court, in a Corporation mandamus case, was virulently assailed in a manner very uncomplimentary to the esteemed gentleman who then filled the invidious and highly responsible office of sole Judge. The defendant was admitted to bail in a personal bond of £200, with two sureties of £100 each. The prosecution was not persisted in, as no bill was ever filed, most probably in consequence of the peculiarly embarassing position in which Justice A'Beckett would be placed by presiding at a trial in which he should figure as judge and virtual prosecutor, i.e., supposing it to be competent for him to legally do so, of which, however, the Crown lawyers of the time appeared to entertain no doubt.
The Argus was now fairly in the race, and as it had two dailies, the Daily News and Herald, to compete with, to have any chance of holding ground it should appear before the public on the same terms, and it was accordingly changed from a tri-weekly, which it had been for some time, into a daily paper on the Waterloo Day (18th June) of 1849. As a mouth-piece of public opinion it was by far the most outspoken and uncompromising of its contemporaries, and no one conversant with the conditions of those early times, and capable of forming an unbiassed opinion, can honestly refuse to Edward Wilson the meed due to one who served his country with a sincere zeal for its true welfare, and an enterprising energy rarely equalled. 1850 was an eventful year as the harbinger of the emancipation of Port Phillip from New South Wales, the birth of the new colony, and the discovery of the gold-fields.
On the 1st April, 1851, the Gazette became a daily, so that Melbourne then had its four morning journals; but a three months' trial was more than enough for Mr. M'Combie, who succumbed before the force of competition, and the last was seen of the second eldest Port Phillipian newspaper. Towards the termination of the year, and in the glare of the early splendours of Ballarat and Mount Alexander, The Argus bought up the Daily News, and in so doing improved upon the mythological monster who fed on his children by devouring generations of its journalistic ancestors. It had already swallowed the old Argus and Courier, and now rolled up in the Daily News, it had the Patriot, the Gazette, the Standard, and the Weekly Register, yet compared with The Argus of to-day, it was a slim, delicate-looking customer. 1852 opened with only the Herald and Argus as Melbourne daily newspapers, and there was never in the colony a period when an organ of public opinion stood more in need of talent and sagacity to enable it to do its duty to the Commonwealth. The Herald exercised considerable influence, but between the two principal motors, Cavenagh and Wilson, there was a world of difference. Cavenagh, though possessed of managerial aptitude of a secondary kind, was devoid of literary ability. He was also defective in the faculty of enterprise of the continuous sort, for spasmodic fits of energy would not now suffice. He had no financial resources to speak of at command, and the handicap of a large family to provide for, made him reluctant to incur liabilities, which might, or might not, recoup themselves. In fact, he had not the pluck to cope with the extraordinary changes which every advancing week brought about, and like a timid mariner in an uncertain and troubled sea, he carried as little canvas as he could, trembled at the helm, and often wished to be well rid of the ship. Wilson, on the other hand, had dash and enthusiasm, and launched out on the ocean with as much sail as his craft could possibly carry. He was unhampered by some of the obstacles surrounding the other, and though the difficulties through which he had to force his way were numerous and formidable, a brave heart and strong unswerving will ultimately wafted him to victory. 1852-3 was the maddest of the mad years in Melbourne, and it was no easy task to work a newspaper through the shoals and quicksands of the times. Though the incomings were considerable, the outlay was enormous. The wind, if it did not blow favourably, had to be "raised" in some way, or else the ship would be stranded. The Wilson-cum-Johnston station speculation was not a paying one, and Johnston, apprehensive that the same fate awaited The Argus, into which he was believed to be instrumental in involving Wilson, withdrew from the partnership, to be succeeded by Mr. James Gill, who, in a short time, also backed out, when Mr. M'Lauchlin M'Kinnon, another ex-squatter, went in, and remained there. Wilson spared neither trouble nor expense in running the journal, which might be said to have grown into the dream of his life. For some time it was the reverse of remunerative, and it was generally understood to be heavily in with some of the banks, but, like a gallant bark, it weathered every storm, and is now (1888) reputedly the best newspaper property at the Antipodes. Edward Wilson had a creed peculiar to himself, the three cardinal points in which were (1) His belief in himself; (2) His belief in The Argus; and (3) A belief in the Colony of Victoria, that it possessed all the inherent qualities, which, if properly applied, would constitute it one of the most flourishing of the Colonial dominions over which the flag of Britain floats. As a true disciple of this creed, he work with a constancy, an untiring fervour, and a determination given to few men of his generation, and he obtained his well-earned reward. When the political history of this country comes to be written The Argus and its founder will stand forth as prominent figures, for whatever may be the public shortcomings of the one, its influence on the destinies of Victoria cannot be overrated; while the other, in his own way served the land of his adoption with the fealty of a true knight, and when dying in the land of his nativity, a few years ago, still held her in remembrance by liberal bequests.
- ↑ The following communication has been addressed to me in reference to this matter:—
To "Garryowen."
Sir, In your "Chronicles of Early Melbourne," which I read with great interest, you mention that Mr. Graham Finlayson started in 1850 the Temperance Advocate. You unintentionally omit to mention that in 1851 he established the first evening paper, called the Evening News. I well remember having to go to the old Flagstaff daily for shipping intelligence.
I am proud that my revered father had the enterprise to run two of the first papers in Melbourne, although both ventures were unsuccessful through the apathy of the reading public at that period. I feel it due to his memory that those facts should be recorded in your Chronicles, which in future will be referred to as the correct authority on that question.
I am, &c.,
PETER FINLAYSON.
Islington Street, Collingwood, 5th June.