Although the Argus has a very influential and advertisement-bringing class of readers, and penetrates beyond the limits of Victoria, by far the largest circulation in Australia is that of the Melbourne Age, a penny four-page sheet, published in Melbourne, which boasts of an issue of 50,000 copies daily, almost all absorbed within Australia. Its leading articles are as able and even more virulent than those of the Argus. Its telegraphic intelligence is good, and in dramatic and literary criticisms it is second only to the Argus in Australia. But its news is comparatively poor, owing to its being only a single-sheet paper, and it caters for a far inferior class than the Argus. Its inventive ability, in which it altogether surpasses the London Daily Telegraph, has brought it the nickname of 'Ananias,' and it is essentially the people's journal. Just as in politics the Argus is not only the organ but the leader of the ultra-Conservative party, even so the Age coaches the Democracy. To its influence is mainly due the ascendency which Mr. Berry's party held for so long, and the violence of the measures which poor Mr. Berry took in hand. It was the Age which originated the idea of the Plebiscite, and of the progressive land-tax. It is protectionist to the backbone, having commenced the cry of 'Victoria for the Victorians,' and fosters a policy of isolation from the sister colonies. Prominent amongst its leader-writers is Mr. C. H. Pearson, whose Democracy is at once the most ultra and the most cultured, the most philosophical and the most dogmatic. Another leader of the Radical party who frequently writes for the Age is Mr. Dakin, the rising young man of Victorian politics, who represents talent and education apart from culture.
The third morning paper in Melbourne is the Daily Telegraph, a penny Conservative sheet which has never attained any large influence or circulation, although edited by a man of considerable literary ability. The evening papers are the Herald, which is supposed to represent the Catholic party; and the World, which is rather American in tone, but very readable. Both are penny papers exerting very little influence.
In all the Victorian papers, of whatever party, it is noticeable that Victorian topics, and especially Victorian politics, occupy an almost exclusive share both of leading and news columns; while the New South Wales and South Australian papers devote far more attention to intercolonial and European affairs. The fact is that Victoria is much more self-contained and independent of the mother country than its neighbours. Somehow or other there is more local news obtainable, more going-on, in fact, in Melbourne than in Sydney and Adelaide put together. Everything and everybody in Victoria moves faster. Hence there is more to chronicle; and greater interest is taken in what is going on in the colony. The political excitement of the country is, after all, but an outcome of this national vivacity of disposition. Half a dozen Berrys put together could not raise one quarter of the feeling in Adelaide, far less in Sydney.
After the Argus I should place the South Australian Register, published in Adelaide, as the best daily paper in Australia. In style and get-up it is almost an exact copy of its Melbourne contemporary, and its published price is twopence. In reports and correspondence it is quite as enterprising, but its leading columns and critiques being almost all written in the office, are necessarily weaker. The whole paper is less carefully edited, but its opinions are more liberal, and it is in no sense a party paper. It May, indeed, be said that not even the Times exercises so much influence in its sphere as does the Register. It not merely reflects public opinion, but, to a great extent, leads it, and it must be admitted that, on the whole, it leads it very sensibly. It may be urged against the Register, that its leading articles are wanting in literary brilliancy as compared with those of the Argus; but they are far more moderate and judicial in political matters. The extraordinary merits of this paper, in so small a community, are due partly to its having been, at a critical period in its existence, edited, managed and partly owned by the late Mr. Howard Clark, a man of great culture and ability, and partly to the close competition of the South Australian Advertiser, a twopenny paper which is well sustained in every department, and noted for occasional leading articles of great brilliancy.
The Sydney Morning Herald is the richest newspaper property in Australia. It has correspondents in almost every capital in Europe, including St. Petersburg--where the Argus and Register are not represented--publishes an immense quantity of news, and is edited by an able and liberal-minded man. But the absence of competition makes it inferior in enterprise to either the Argus, Register, or Advertiser. Its leading columns are sound but commonplace, and there is a fatal odour of respectable dulness about the paper. A second paper called the Daily Telegraph was established in Sydney in 1879, which seems to be meeting the wants of the penny public, but it is very inferior to the Herald, or to the second-rate papers in the other colonies. In Adelaide, the evening papers are merely penny reprints of half of the morning papers. In Sydney, the Herald proprietors publish the Echo, a sprightly little sheet; but the best evening paper is the Evening News, which caters for the popular taste and is somewhat sensational.
The wants of the bushman, who relies on one weekly paper for his sole intellectual food, and who, though often well educated, is far away from libraries or books of any kind, have given rise to a class of weekly papers which are quite sui generis. The model on which they are all formed is the Australasian, published by the Argus proprietors, which is still the best known and the best. Some idea of the enormous mass of reading-matter it contains may be gathered from the fact that its ordinary issue is fifty-two pages, a little larger than the Pall Mall, but containing five columns to the page and printed in the ordinary small type used in most daily papers, and known to printers as 'brevier.' To give an idea of the character of its contents is difficult. It is partly a newspaper, partly a magazine. The telegrams for the week are culled from the Argus. If it were not for the addition of a fortnightly intercolonial letter, the way in which the week's news is given would remind me of the St. James's Budget. It is divided into Parliament, town news, country news, intercolonial, home (i.e. English), and foreign news, and may be described as a classified reproduction of the more important news in the Argus.
There are generally three or four leading articles somewhat of the character--but of course not the quality--of the Spectator; and the notes on the first page of the Liberal weekly are evidently imitated in a page of short editorial comments called 'Topics of the Week.' 'Literature,' by which is meant a two-column review of a single book and three or four short reviews, is another heading. The 'Ladies' Column' contains a leader after the manner of the Queen, fashion items, notes and queries, and every other week an excellent English letter by Mrs. Cashel Hoey, dealing with new plays, books and social events in London. 'The Wanderer,' 'The Traveller,' 'The Sketcher,' 'The Tourist,' head single or short serial articles of one and a half or two columns in length, signed or not signed, but always either well written or describing something new and interesting. 'Talk on 'Change' heads a column and a half of satirical or humorous notes, which are very much appreciated, and form a more leading feature of the paper than their merit warrants. The anecdotes are often new and always admirably told, but the comments are weak. 'The Theatres' contains one general critique of the newest play in Melbourne--sometimes two--followed by short detailed criticisms, hashed up from the Argus, of whatever is on the boards at the different theatres. 'The Essayist' is one of the best features in the paper, though it appeals to a very limited audience. Those written by a gentleman signing himself 'An Eclectic,' are exceptionally good--better, as a rule, than most similar essays in the Saturday. Dr. J. E. Taylor's 'Popular Science Notes' are by no means equal to those Mr. Proctor used to contribute. 'Original Poetry 'speaks for itself. 'Miscellany' heads a column of humorous extract paragraphs, chiefly from American papers. 'The Novelist' contains a serial. 'The Story-Teller' a single story--original. This department is always well sustained, and no expense is spared in getting good work. 'All Sorts and Conditions of Men' has just been running through the paper, Besant and Rice being favourite authors here. James Payne, B. L. Farjeon and R. E. Francillon are other contributors whose names come into my mind. Occasionally a colonial work is chosen, and the proprietors do a great deal of service in bringing out really promising authors.
Besides all these standing dishes, there are, of course, a few stray articles on all kinds of subjects. In a copy before me is one of a series entitled, 'The Goldfields,' of special interest to miners, and treating the subject technically.
But the two departments which may be said to have made the Australasian are the Sportsman and the Yeoman, which, to all intents and purposes, are separate papers incorporated with the Australasian. Of the Sportsman, I don't think it is too much to say, that it is the best sporting paper in the world, not excepting the Field, and it fully deserves the supreme authority which it exercises over all sporting matters south of the line. The page begins with 'Answers to Correspondents.' Then come one or two leading articles on sporting matters, which form the stronghold of the department; then Turf Gossips, the Betting Market, full descriptions of all Australian and the principal New Zealand race-meetings, special training notes from Flemington, Randwick and Adelaide, intercolonial sporting notes and letters from special correspondents, winding up with 'Sporting Notes from Home.' Cricket next has a leading article and notes, followed by descriptions of the more important matches. Yachting, rowing, coursing, pigeon-shooting, hunting, shooting, football, and lawn-tennis all come in for a small share.
The Yeoman is not much in my line, though it is looked up to as a great authority upon all agricultural and pastoral topics. Taking a current number, I find it begins with 'Answers to Correspondents;' then comes the 'Weekly Review of the Corn Trade;' 'Rural Topics and Events;' a series of short editorial comments; a leader on' Wheat-growing;' 'The Crops and the Harvest, by our Agricultural Reporter, No. IV.;' 'In the Queensland Down County, No. VI.;' 'The Water Conservation Act, No. III.;' 'The Melbourne Wool-buyers and the Wool-brokers;' 'Separating Cream by Machinery;' 'Selling Live Cattle by Weight;' 'Fancy Price of Breeders;' 'Competition between Draught Horses;' 'Butter Cows;' 'The Black Walnut at Home.' 'Public Trial of Hornsby's Spring Binder;' 'Correspondence;' 'Horticultural Notes;' 'Gardening Operations for the Week;' 'Plant Notes;' 'Notes and Gleanings;' 'Impoundings;' etc., etc., etc.