David Syme

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For the American pianist of the same name, see David Syme (pianist).

David Syme (October 2, 1827 – February 14, 1908) was an Scottish-Australian newspaper proprietor of The Age and regarded as "the father of protection in Australia" who had immense influence in the Government of Victoria.

Syme was born at North Berwick in Scotland, the youngest of the seven children of George Alexander Syme, a parish schoolmaster, and his wife, Jean Mitchell. His father was a radical, his income was small but he managed to provide for his large family and send three of his sons to universities. His son, David, he educated himself, and the boy's childhood was one of study with little companionship with other boys of his own age. David was 16 years old when his father died and he continued his classical studies with some doubt as to what his future was to be. He had thoughts of qualifying for the ministry but revolted from the Calvinistic teaching of the day, and after attending some classes at Heidelberg he returned to Scotland and obtained a position about 1850 as a reader on a Glasgow newspaper. His pay was small and there was little prospect of advancement, so towards the end of 1851 he sailed for San Francisco by way of Cape Horn and arrived after a voyage of five months. He immediately went to the goldfields but had little success, and early in 1852 took ship for Australia in a badly provisioned vessel, and arrived at Sydney in a half-starved condition.

Syme took the first steamer for Melbourne and walked to Castlemaine. There he had small success and Bendigo, Wangaratta, Ballarat and Beechworth. Once, at Mount Egerton, he and his partner nearly obtained a fortune, but their claim, which afterwards became very valuable, was jumped by other men and they were unable to obtain redress. Towards the end of 1855 Syme returned to Melbourne and joined his brother, Ebenezer Syme, who was editing the The Age newspaper. The paper was then threatened with failure, and Syme who had saved some money while on the diggings joined his brother in buying it for the sum of £2000. The paper struggled on for 18 months, when finding it could not support the two proprietors David obtained other employment. He became a contractor and in spite of strong competition was successful. In March 1860 his brother Ebenezer died, and finding it was difficult to sell The Age Syme decided to abandon his contracting and carry on the paper.

The task undertaken was one of great difficulty, and only the fact that the proprietor was willing to work 15 hours a day made success possible. The original policy of The Age included manhood suffrage, the opening of the lands for selection by the people, no compensation for the squatters, and compulsory, free and secular education. When protection was added to the program great opposition was raised. It was felt by his opponents that these policies would greatly harm the colony. The opposition to The Age was carried even to the extent of boycotting its advertisement columns. Various abortive amending land acts became law between 1860 and 1869, but in the latter year an act was passed which embodied most of the principles for which Syme had fought. A tremendous flow of population came into Victoria between 1850 and 1860 and towards the end of the decade there was some unemployment. Syme felt that manufacturing industries should be established and that this could only be done by bringing in trade protection. He won over to his side able men like Sir James McCulloch and Sir Graham Berry, protection became the settled economic policy of the colony, and consequently many factories were established.

Syme was undoubtedly a driving force for the introduction of such policies, which accompanied a great increase in economic activity. Equally, the neighbouring colony of New South Wales retained a policy which was practically free trade for most of the period before federation, and appears to have been as steadily prosperous as Victoria. Protectionism in Victoria was bitterly opposed and dispute led to great contests between the legislative assembly and the legislative council. The struggle went on for years, but Syme's contention that the people as a whole should rule and not any section of them was finally established, and for a long period The Age became the predominant factor in Victorian politics. In its early days there was difficulty in getting competent journalists, the best of them was G. Paton Smith who was editor for some years. After he left Syme took the editorial chair until Arthur Lloyd Windsor became editor about 1870 and held the position until 1900. Possibly his ablest assistant was Charles Henry Pearson who began writing leaders about the year 1875.

The first protectionist tariff had been a very moderate one and McCulloch was not willing to go further. Though Syme thought highly of McCulloch's ability he opposed him and transferred his support to Graham Berry. Parliament became tired of the turmoil and more than once ministries were formed consisting partly of freetraders and partly of protectionists. This did not satisfy Syme and in 1877 his advocacy brought in Berry with a large majority. The legislative council, however, rejected his tariff and fresh constitutional difficulties arose. The governor, Sir George Bowen, was placed in a difficult position, and took the unprecedented step of asking Syme's advice. His reply was that the governor should act in conformity with the opinions of the law officers of the crown. This he did but Syme thought the advice was bad and told the premier so. Berry then asked Syme for his advice and took it. It is evident that Syme at this time had very great influence within the colony. Constitutional difficulties continued for some time, but at last the legislative council was reformed, by increasing the number of eligible voters and by other changes in its constitution to make it more democratic.

Syme had supported Berry in the fight for protection and during the constitutional struggle, but was not satisfied with him as an administrator, and though opposed to James Service he recognized that Service had the very qualities Berry lacked. He therefore supported the coalition ministry formed in 1883 which did good work for three years. There was a feeling of general confidence, a tendency to over-borrow and to spend huge sums on railways and other public works. This led to the mining and land booms which really burst in 1889, though the full effects were not realized until the bank crisis of 1893. In 1891 The Age began a series of articles alleging bad management and incompetence on the part of the railway commissioners, which led at last to an action for libel being brought against The Age by the chief commissioner, Richard Speight. Other articles attacked the civil service generally. At the first trial of the railway libel case begun on 1 June 1893 the jury disagreed, and the second trial which began on 17 April 1894 and lasted for 105 days resulted in a verdict for the defendant on nine out of the ten counts, and on the tenth count the damages were assessed at one farthing. Speight, however, was ruined and Syme had to pay his own costs which amounted to about £50,000. As an illustration of the great power some felt was exercised by Syme at this time, the leading counsel for the plaintiff, when addressing the jury, stated that "no government could stand against The Age without being shaken to its centre".

Syme had early realized that agriculture would need development in Victoria and twice sent J. L. Dew to America to study irrigation and agricultural methods. He also sent Alfred Deakin to India to report on irrigation in that country. As a result the development of irrigation began which after some early failures was to be successfully extended in later years. He also supported the measures which brought in early closing, anti-sweatshop legislation, and old-age pensions. When the question of federation became really important towards the end of the century it was Deakin, a protégé of Syme's, who became the leader of the movement in Victoria. At the election for the convention to frame the constitution Syme selected 10 men from the 24 candidates for his support, and they were duly elected. During the first federal parliament he fought for comparatively high protective duties, but his influence did not extend to any great extent beyond Victoria and he was for the time unsuccessful. In later years, however, considerable increases in duties were made. In the last years of his life Syme was exercised about the faults of party government. Some of these he had drawn attention to in chapter VII of his Representative Government in England. His suggested remedies have failed, however, to obtain much support. He died at Kew near Melbourne on 14 February 1908. He married in 1859 Annabella Johnson who survived him with five sons and two daughters. He is buried at Kew Cemetery.

During his 50 Years of ownership of The Age Syme wrote several books. The first Outlines of an Industrial Science, published in London in 1876 is largely a vindication of protection and is also a plea for the extension of the activities of the state. In 1881 appeared Representative Government in England, a study of the history of parliament in England. His next book On the Modification of Organisms, published in 1890, is a criticism of Darwin's theory of natural selection. His last volume, The Soul: A Study and an Argument (1903), discusses the nature of life, instinct, memory, mind, and survival after death. As for philanthropic activities, he paid the expenses of a rifle team to Bisley, Surrey and financed expeditions to New Guinea and Central Australia. In 1904 he gave £3000 to the University of Melbourne to endow the Syme prize for research in biology, chemistry, geology and natural philosophy. When the introduction of linotype machines threw many of his compositers out of work, he was thoroughly conscientious in seeing that they were provided for. The elder men were pensioned and others were set up in business or placed on the land.

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This article incorporates text from the public domain 1949 edition of Dictionary of Australian Biography from
Project Gutenberg of Australia, which is in the public domain in Australia and the United States of America.
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