Cite: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3807937

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"The Argus" AND ITS FOUNDERS

         

 

 

 

     

 

THREE GREAT PERSONALITIES

INTRODUCTION Review of Policy

AN anniversary is an opportunity to weigh and appraise the  

achievements of the known past, and to envisage the un- known future with eyes of hope and expectation. It is 80 years since "The Argus" took its place in the journalism of Victoria, and in those eight decades Victoria has made   progress which older communities did not make for as many generations. The story of "The Argus" is the story

of that achievement, for its fortunes have been linked in-       separably with the fortunes of the community which it      

has sought to serve. Something of the spirit which animated the restless push of the pioneers toward an ever-receding horizon; some glimpses of those forerunners,   their origins, their deeds, and their qualities; some record of progress, and some hint of promise will be found in these pages, commemorative of the 80th birthday of "The Argus" and of its establishment in a new home.  

The 11 years which intervened between the foundation of the Port Phillip   settlement and the advent of "The Argus" were uneventful. In 1846 the settlement had yet to make its gold discoveries and to win self-government.     Its entire population was fewer than 40,000; Melbourne was little better than   a village. To this infant community the founders of "The Argus" brought   the service of the great power of the newspaper press, of all powers at once the most dependent upon the conditions of the moment, yet, wisely wielded, the least dependent upon the crazes and fancies of the moment. Each era claims, and always will claim, the distinction of witnessing changes more revolutionary   than any other, but the years which followed 1846 may well be adjudged to have achieved the distinction in Victoria. It was an era of stupendous develop-     ment, bristling with social and economic problems. There was need for fear- less advocacy of the rights of the people, but there was equal need for the pro-  

tection of the people against the dangerous wiles of those demagogues who are conspicuous in every primitive community. There were certain simple ideals which the men who dedicated "The Argus" to the service of the people set before           themselves-knowledge, accuracy, dignity, and decent reticence-and through these things the wielding of a power and an influence for the general good. They determined to be guided by principle, regardless of consequences; they stood consistently and fearlessly for the telling of the truth, no matter how unpalatable it might be; they turned their ardour to con- structive ends. They warned the people-and the warning was never more necessary than in those restless days-that the way to the achievement of real democratic government was along the high road; and that those who under- stood the true spirit of democracy were never for a moment deceived by any apparent victory which might result from a departure into byways.

Thus a common ideal of freedom has been defined and safe- guarded by constitutional method, which is a pledge for the present and a promise for the future. In the evolution of that ideal it has been the peculiar and especial function of "The Argus" to impose a restraining hand upon those bent upon a loose interpretation of constitutional theory. In the 'fifties, it championed the cause of the miners, until they openly declared their contempt for constituted authority and resorted to force, when it unhesi- tatingly pronounced them beyond the law. In the 'sixties and 'seventies it opposed with might and main the attempts of the radicals to override the Legislative Council as an inconvenient obstacle to the passing of immature legislation. In the Darling grant dispute it insisted upon the necessity for preserving and strengthening the Legislative Council against waves of popular excitement, and supported the successful resistance to the Legislative As- sembly's attempt to force the hand of the Legislative Council by tacking a tariff to the Appropriation Bill. Thirteen years later it helped to frustrate   the attempts to coerce the Legislative Council into accepting the "tacking" of a provision for the payment of members to an Appropriation Bill, and   to reduce the Council to a nullity by providing that Supply should be legally available as soon as it was passed by the Legislative Assembly. Invariably "The Argus" has insisted upon the importance of those agencies of government whereby the will of the majority may ultimately be ascertained. So com- pletely did that view triumph that in the Federal Constitution special pro- vision was made to prevent the coercion of one House by the other, and the safeguard has been adopted by the majority of the States.

In every cause which "The Argus" has championed there has been dis- cernible a tradition of insistence upon equality of rights under the law and equality of opportunity to every man to show the stuff that is in him compared with his fellows. It has stood for the unfettered exercise of initiative, for the encouragement of private enterprise, for the ordered development of industry, free from artificial stimulus, and for such a distribution

of political power as should enable all interests, as well as all persons, to re- ceive a fair hearing. It has insisted that, while the majority should govern, the minority should never be sup- pressed. It has opposed privilege and monopoly and class aggrandisement. These principles are in the warp and woof of all its thought. It was Mr. Edward Wilson's impatience with the bureaucratic mismanagement of the Port Phillip settlement in the 'forties which led him to find his metier in journalism and to work for the es- tablishment of separate and responslble government. It was his burning indig- nation at the mere possibility of great accumulations of land in the hands, of a privileged few that inspired his cry, "Unlock the lands!" which soon became   a popular watchword. These early traditions were maintained in the unde- viating support given to the establish-

ment of State education, to the end that, with the growth of enlightenment, the number of those who truly counted in the processes of government might increase; in the exposure of the grave scandal of political patronage and place-   hunting, and in the ultimate return of a Parliament pledged to place the public  

services beyond political control ; in the removal of railway construction from the prejudice of party strife through the establishment of the Railways Stand- ing Committee. Finally there came that stage in the development of the colonies at which "The Argus" perceived the danger that a still unfederated Australia might become a loose association of jealous States, striking at one another's commerce and general interests. It was to avert this catastrophe that, in the face of powerful opposition, "The Argus" exercised strong and   undeviating pressure towards Federation until its ambition was realised.  

Thus, looking back over the span of a lifetime, Victoria, through the pages of this journal, still can, and does, live familiarly with the memory  

of its brave beginnings. In vigorous manhood it walks with its hand upon the shoulder of its youth. If the marvellous past may be accepted as the criterion of a future beyond human vision, Victoria, carrying forward the qualities which have gone to her building and made her what she is to-day, may surely confront the unknown with faith and hope and thankfulness.

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