348 



The Review of Reviews. 



October 1, 190t. 



mount interest, including the revis- 

 ion of the libel laws ; and its execu- 

 tives met at more frequent periods. 

 Meanwhile pressure of other duties 

 compelled Mr. Wride to reluctantly 

 resign his position, and the Associa- 

 tion, at its Annual Conference in 

 1904., regretfully accepted his resig- 

 nation. Mr. Wearne, of the New- 

 castle Herald's Sydney office, also 

 rendered signal service to the Asso- 

 ciation, though not a member of it, 

 by assisting to establish it on a 

 sound and permanent basis. 



As the scope of the operations 

 and aims of the Country Press As- 

 sociation widened, it became patent 

 to all that to carry its ambitions to a 

 practical issue capital was needed 

 beyond the limited fund created by 

 members' subscriptions. The then 

 President, Mr. J. C. Leslie, of the 

 Corowa Free Press, who had been 

 for some years associated with a 

 Co-operative Press organisation in 

 Victoria, brought down a report of 

 the scheme of that body, and of the 

 financial success which had followed its operations. 

 It was thereupon resolved to issue a prospectus on 

 similar lines. In due time the share list was filled, 

 and the period had arrived when the Country Press 

 Association succeeded in launching the New South 

 Wales Country Press Co-operative Company, Limit- 

 ed, wath its registered Board of Directors complete, 

 to attend to the commercial side of all requirements 

 of the Country Press. The actual scope of its ope- 

 ration to include the business of general advertising 

 contractors, telegraphic and literary agents, supple- 

 ment and periodical publishers, suppliers of copy- 

 righted serials, etc., in stereo., and otherwise to pro- 

 vincial newspapers ; the prospective scope, to add 

 in due time the supply to the shareholders and other 

 constituents of the stock of all the departments of 

 general printers' brokers. 



At the unanimous request of the ZQ04. Confer- 

 ence, Mr. T. M. Shakespeare, proprietor of the Graf- 

 ton Argus — a young and enterprising pressman, who 

 had distinguished himself as a successful business 

 man as well as a zealous member of the Associa- 

 tion — was asked to undertake the position of mana- 

 ger to the new Company, as well as to succeed Mr, 

 Wride as secretary to the Association. This he 

 - consented to do, taking up duties shortly after^vards, 

 and, as was confidently expected, succeeded in 

 making the Company a commericial success from 

 the outset. 



The Association is no longer an experiment. To- 

 day, a majority" of the provincial press of the State 

 are associated with it, either as subscribing mem- 

 bers or as scripholders, reaping their share of the 



MP. John Gale. 



One of Australia's oldest editor-proprietors, and originator of the first 

 movement to unite country pressmen into a concrete body. 



accruing profits, small as yet, but surely destined 

 to become as solid and considerable an investment 

 as that of the kindred Association in Victoria ; while 

 every paper in the State has reaped direct advantage 

 and new business. 



Of the 220 newspapers published in the State, 

 outside the metropolitan area, i^o have already be- 

 come enrolled. It is only a question of time when 

 every newspaper proprietor will recognise the ad- 

 vantage of union with the Association ; and when 

 that is attained, as it surely will, the Country Press 

 of the Mother State will have reached the fulness 

 of its liberty, power, and independence. The time 

 may then be ripe for the joining of hands of all 

 the Associations — one of which exists in almost 

 ever)- State of the Union, and the launching of a 

 Federated Australian Press Association, such as 

 exists to-day in America, and confers a benefit and 

 a blessing on pressmen and nations, surely an ob- 

 ject truly worthv of the assistance of ever}' journalist 

 in the Commonwealth. Following are brief notices 

 of some of the most prominent of the Association's 

 benefactors. 



MR. JOHN GALE. 



There is no more interesting personality in the 

 journalism of the Commonwealth than the veteran 

 John Gale, founder of the N.S.W. Country Press 

 .\ssociation. Mr. Gale is one of the oldest, if not 

 the oldest, editor-proprietors in Australasia. In the 

 Old Land, he was for years associated with news- 

 paper work, and it is 46 years since he first " snatch- 

 ed at tvpe " this side of the equator, in the Age 

 office, Queanbevan. And, in a rush, he can still 



