John Fairfax and the Sydney Morning Herald, 1841-1877
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The Shaping of Colonial Liberalism: John Fairfax and the Sydney Morning Herald, 1841-1877. A Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of New South Wales 2006 Stuart Buchanan Johnson ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. 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CONTENTS Page Abstract Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Literature Review: Sources and Historiography 10 Chapter 1: John Fairfax in England, 1805-1838; Migration to NSW; 41 Acquisition of the Herald; Editorial Influence. Chapter 2: John Fairfax: Journalism and Politics in England, 1835-1838 63 The Leamington Chronicle, Religious Nonconformity and Liberalism in Britain Chapter 3: The Sydney Morning Herald: State-Aid to Churches; Roman 90 Catholicism; Education; Proposed Temperance and Sabbath Observance Legislation. Chapter 4: The Sydney Morning Herald: Free Trade and Intercolonial Union 123 Chapter 5: The Sydney Morning Herald: Land Policy (part i) 157 The Background to the Robertson Land Acts Chapter 6: The Sydney Morning Herald: Land Policy (part ii) 179 The Robertson Land Acts Chapter 7: The Sydney Morning Herald: Land Policy (part iii) 197 The Response of the Herald to the Robertson Land Acts Chapter 8: The Sydney Morning Herald: Colonial Politics (part i) 218 Antitransportation; Electoral Act 1851; Constitutional Debate 1853; the Treatment of Chinese Workers Chapter 9: The Sydney Morning Herald: Colonial Politics (part ii) 243 Electoral Act 1858; Secret Ballot; Manhood Suffrage & Democracy Chapter 10: Conclusion: Political Nomenclature in Colonial Society and 273 Colonial Historiography Bibliography 288 ABSTRACT The goal of this thesis is to examine the editorial position of the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia's oldest continually produced newspaper, as a way of examining the character of colonial liberalism. Analysis will proceed by way of close scrutiny of key issues dealt with by the Sydney Morning Herald, including: state-aid to churches; education policy; free trade; land reform; the antitransportation movement; issues surrounding political representation; and the treatment of Chinese workers. Such analysis includes an appraisal of the views of John Fairfax, proprietor from 1841 to his death in 1877, and the influences, particularly religious nonconformity, which shaped his early journalism in Britain. Another key figure in the thesis is John West, editor 1854-1873, and again his editorial stance will be related to the major political and religious movements in Britain and Australia. Part of this re-evaluation of the character of colonial liberalism in the thesis provides a critical study of the existing historiography and calls into question the widely held view that the Sydney Morning Herald was a force for conservatism. In doing so, the thesis questions some of the major assumptions of the existing historiography and, while doing justice to colonial context, attempts to contextualise colonial politics with the broader framework of mid nineteenth-century Western political thought. ABBREVIATIONS ADB Australian Dictionary of Biography AHS Australian Historical Studies AJPH Australian Journal of Politics and History Chronicle The Leamington Chronicle and Warwickshire Reporter Herald Sydney Morning Herald LA Legislative Assembly LC Legislative Council ML Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW M P Member of Parliament NSW New South Wales HS Historical Studies JACH Journal of Australian Colonial History JRAHS Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society YMCA Young Men’s Christian Association ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge the following people for their direct assistance in the writing of this thesis or for their personal support. I wish to thank my friend Dr Stuart Piggin who, more than twenty years ago at the University of Wollongong, first identified and nurtured my academic potential. My thanks also go to Dr Leighton Frappell and Dr Ray Nobbs for their encouragement during my return to the academic study of history in the 1990s at Macquarie University. I am indebted to my friend Dr Mark Hutchinson, not the least for the suggestion of considering John Fairfax, and to our mutual colleague and friend Dr Geoff Treloar for his willingness to read a full draft of this thesis and to provide his invaluable advice. My thanks also to the ever-helpful staff at the Mitchell and Dixson Libraries of the State Library of NSW where the bulk of my primary research was undertaken. I also wish to acknowledge the assistance and support of the following people: Ron and Nikki Winestock; my parents Brian and Margaret Johnson; and my wife Gail and our children Emma, Sarah and Elizabeth. Finally, of course, I am most grateful to my supervisors. To my co-supervisor, Dr Anne O’Brien, whose critical reflection was incredibly valuable, and, above all, to my supervisor, Professor John Gascoigne, for his robust interaction with the central ideas of the thesis and for his general encouragement and unfailing availability. INTRODUCTION For more than one hundred and fifty years the Sydney Morning Herald has been the leading newspaper in NSW and arguably Australia. Established in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the (from 1842) Sydney Morning Herald is also the oldest continually published newspaper in Australia.1 For most of its history the Herald was owned or under the controlling interest of the Fairfax family. These were direct descendants of John Fairfax (1805-77)2 who, along with Charles Kemp, purchased the Herald in 1841. Kemp sold his share to Fairfax in September 1853, when Fairfax’s eldest son Charles joined him in partnership. In 1856 second son James joined them and ‘John Fairfax and Sons’ was born.3 Lasting five generations until 1990, Australia’s greatest commercial dynasty had begun.4 As the oldest and arguably most distinguished daily newspaper in Australia, the Herald is of enormous historical significance. To chart the story of its rise to dominance and to assess its character and content, is to explore the very foundations of the city of Sydney, the colony of NSW, and the early history of the Australian nation. It is one of the great primary sources of colonial history. Although an icon of Australian journalism, a vast historical repository, and the vehicle through which Australia’s most enduring commercial dynasty was established, the Herald remains curiously unexamined.5 The same is true of John Fairfax, its dominant early proprietor and dynasty founder. Bankrupted in England, Fairfax arrived in Sydney in 1838 and from this most unlikely beginning rose to become one of the most prominent figures on Sydney’s 1 V. Isaacs and R. Kirkpatrick, Two Hundred Years of Sydney Newspapers: A Short History, Rural Press. Ltd, Richmond, 2003, p.4. 2 There has been uncertainty as to whether Fairfax was born in 1804 or 1805. Although descendent J. O. Fairfax proffers 1804 in his ADB entry for Fairfax, Souter is persuasive in outlining a preference for 1805. See Gavin Souter, Company of Heralds: a century and a half of Australian publishing by John Fairfax Limited and its predecessors, 1831-1981, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1981, pp. 7 and 621. Fairfax’s tombstone at Rookwood cemetery has 1805 as the year of birth. 3 See ‘Chronology 1831-1981’ in Souter, Company of Heralds, p. 592. 4 Given the success of Rural Press, wherein Fairfax family members on the Sir Vincent Fairfax (1909-93) side possess a controlling influence, it is perhaps remiss to date the end of the dynasty at the loss of family control of the Herald. Still, for the time being at least, its dominance on the Australian media scene has been overtaken by the more recent dynasties of Murdoch and Packer. 5 Henningham noted in 1988 the irony of the neglect of journalism history, given the dependence of historians upon the media and ‘particularly newspapers, as sources’. J. P. Henningham, ‘Two Hundred Years of Australian Journalism: A History Waiting to be Written’, Australian Cultural History, no. 7, Australian Academy of the Humanities, Australian National University, 1988, p.