The shaping of colonial liberalism : John Fairfax and the Sydney Morning Herald, 1841-1877.

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.