Review of Reviews, 2/10/06. 



The JV.S.W. Gauntry Press. 



347 



tion — mostly a cut-rate — for the stipulated number 

 of insertions, and, with the more impecunious, the 

 terms (out of all proportion to scale rates) were ac- 

 cepted without protest. In cases where they were 

 demurred at, an advance was frequently made upon 

 the original offer, thus conclusively proving the 

 character of the transaction as between the agent 

 and the advertiser. 



Was it to be wondered at, then, that in due 

 course the Country Press was driven to adopt means 

 tor the protection of its interests ? But this was not 

 attempted till some time in the eighties, when a 

 Conference of Country Newspaper Proprietors met 

 in Sydney and formed an Association for mutual 

 aid and self-defence. It adopted a scale of ad- 

 vertising rates, passed resolutions to ostracise the 

 advertising supplement trick, took the initial step 

 towards controlling its own advertising business, by 

 recognising only the more reputable city agents, and 

 arranging with' the several public departments to 

 obtain direct from the Government its advertise 

 ments, and went so far as to affirm the expediency 

 of providing its own literary supplements and es- 

 tablishing a depot for supplying its members with 

 material requisites. 



This first attempt to obtain control of its own 

 affairs and clip the tentacles of the octopus was 

 not cordially supported by the majority of the pro- 

 vincial newspaper proprietors, who evidently feared 

 that the stand taken by the new organisation would 

 lessen, rather than increase, their advertising busi- 

 ness, and, by requiring them to abandon the use of 

 the free advertising supplement, compel them to in- 

 vest in a supplement at increased expenditure. 

 Thus the newly-formed Association, representing 

 only a minority, of the country press, realised its 

 weakness, but struggled hard and heroically to gain 

 a more pemianent footing, increased from year to 

 year by only small additions to its numbers. As a 

 set-off there were occasional defections. It lacked 

 not prestige, for it included some of the veteran 

 pressmen of the colony. Among its Presidents 

 were such prominent journalists as the late Mr. 

 James Torpy, M.L.A. for Orange, and Mr. John 

 Gale, M.L.A. for the Murrumbidgee (with his record 

 at that time of well-nigh fifty years' association with 

 newspaper work). 



Unfortunately, through causes which it is inex- 

 pedient to refer to now, the first Country Press As- 

 sociation became defunct, and though spasmodic 

 efforts were put forth to resuscitate the Association 

 and avoid the rocks on which the first movement 

 had been wrecked, it was not until 1890 that any- 

 thing like the promise of success attended efforts. 



This was the era which brought into the fore- 

 most ranks of the movement in greater numerical 

 force the acknowledged leaders of the provincial 

 press, such brainv and experienced men as Messrs. 

 J. C. Leslie, W. H. Midgley, R. McMillan, T. Tem- 

 perlcv, F. Pinkstone, 1. L. Trefle, A. Colless, J. 



Gale, J. A. Puddicombe, R. S. Robinson, J. John- 

 ston, A. Wood, G. Adams, and others. It was the 

 period, too, when the country press, growing in 

 numbers and in power, was awakening to the con- 

 sciousness of its strength and influence. It saw 

 more clearly the abuses and exactions to which it 

 had been subjected ; it perceived the time fully 

 ripe for redressing grievances and asserting its true 

 place and power. 



Pressmen from the great agricultural and pastoral 

 districts, from the mining, manufacturing, and mari- 

 time centres — men who had, in business aptitude 

 and other qualities, grown with the growth of the 

 localities where they had embarked on their enter- 

 prises — joined the movement. 



A Conference, strong in numbers, but stronger 

 still in wisdom and experience — as the mere men- 

 tion of Adams and Colless, Fitzpatrick and Gale, 

 Leslie and McMillan, Puddicombe and Temperley, 

 Trefle and Varley, and a host of others whose 

 names will ever be associated with the history of 

 the provincial press of the parent State, demon- 

 strate — discussed the burning questions, and dis- 

 posed of them as their predecessors in conference 

 had done. 



The daily thunderers of the metropolis were then 

 prepared to acknowledge the status and influence 

 of the brethren of the provincial press, and such 

 men as Messrs. S. Cook {S. M. Herald), W. Wvnne 

 and R. Nail {Daily Telegraph), A. E. Dekker {Even- 

 ing News), J. M. Saunders {Australian Star), and 

 Wm. McLeod {Bulletin), gave the Conference coun- 

 tenance, support, and counsel ; and even in the 

 Legislature, where, as is the case the civilised world 

 over, pressmen graduated in prominence, old jour- 

 nalists like E. W. O'Sullivan, J. A. Hogue, J. Ashton, 

 and others, lent encouragement and assistance. 



The manifesto of the Conference of 1890 was a 

 declaration of independence, an assertion of self- 

 contained resourcefulness, and the death-warrant to 

 abuses. It was the ascension of the Fourth Estate 

 in New South Wales to the plane it was destined to 

 occupy among the forces which fought for the free- 

 dom and welfare of the State. 



Year by year, the Governments of the day, from 

 the initial efforts of the Association to assert its 

 rights, privileges, and powers, were ever readv to 

 further its aims by concessions and recognitions . 

 which will ever live gratefully in the memories of 

 its members. 



The Association was fortunate at this juncture in 

 iibtaining the. practically gratuitous services of such 

 an experienced pressman and man of business ca- 

 I)acity as Mr. George Wride. the Sydney advertising 

 representative of " The Review of Reviews,'' to un- 

 dertake the management of its affairs. In this direc- 

 tion, Mr. Wride brought to the aid of the Association 

 versatility and experience. 



The Annual Conferences became more and more 

 influential, and dealt with fresh matters of para- 



