The need of reform was urgent. In the old Council a competent critic described the proceedings as sometimes resembling a tandem, where the first horse suddenly bolts round and faces the wheeler. It was told as a good joke that when Mr. Fawkner was called to order with the cry "Chair, chair," he responded contemptuously by vociferating "Stool, stool." The pro-Government Press, however, and especially the Argus, accused me of impeding the public business, and thwarting the Government by mere pedantry. In later years the Argus has adopted the practice of the London Times with opponents—the practice of reporting them fairly and censuring them whenever it thinks fit—but at this time it was shamefully unfair, and made its reports of Parliament a vehicle of its prejudice.[1] On the question of supporting the Victorian Hansard—a reprint of the Argus—the subject of fair reporting turned up, and I took up the charge of having impeded the public business and thwarted the Government, and answered it in a manner which I can still recall with satisfaction, as it proved I had done the exact reverse. There were six cases, I said, in which the Government Press had complained of my conduct, and I would glance at them in succession.
"On the day Parliament opened I recommended that we should adopt the House of Commons practice of adjourning for two hours before taking the Governor's speech into consideration, in order to enable the Opposition to determine what course they would take in relation to it. The Government would not consent to any adjournment, and what was the consequence? Why, that they found it necessary to adjourn four-and-twenty hours a little later for the same
- ↑ I should state that before this time Mr. Edward Wilson had relinquished the management of the Argus, appointing an editor to whom he left a free hand, but he had not lost his interest in my career, and wrote to me occasionally such notes as the following in relation to an early pre-Parliamentary speech:—
"Argus Office.
"My dear Sir,—It would be less than justice towards you to abstain from conveying to you a hint that your speech is very much approved of indeed by those with whom I more immediately associate. Stick to that and avoid damaging alliances, and there is an Australian future for you which will not be unworthy of a place beside your Irish past. And all this Mr. J. P. Fawkner notwithstanding.—Yours very truly,
"Edward Wilson."
