Warwick Argus (Qld. : 1879 - 1901), Tuesday 26 August 1879, page 2


The Warwick Argus

[PUBLISHED TWICE A WEEK.]

WARWICK, TUESDAY, AUG 26, 1879.

The Warwick Argus today makes its

bow to the public of Warwick as a

bi-weekly newspaper. After a period of nearly fifteen years babyhood it is, in the opinion of the proprietor, time the paper made a forward step, and, throwing off its babyish apparel, donned

the garments of more mature age. Time was when the Argue appeared twice a week but, owing either to want of money or appreciation on the part of the public, or ability on the part of its

then proprietor, its bi-weekly perora-tions did not continue for any very great

length of time, and it ultimately re-

turned to the dreary monotony of a

weekly appearance. This has con-tinued with uninterrupted regularity for the past fourteen or fifteen years, a sufficient time it must be admitted to allow plans being matured for its more frequent appearance. We are, however, not alone blameable for the long period the town has had to put up with weekly sheets. Newspaper proprietors resemble most other folk in at least one respect; they do not as a rule, find their philan-thropy unbearable, and it therefore follows that they do not usually dis-play any great anxiety to advance the interests of their fellow beings at the sacrifice of their own. We are not one

of the exceptions to this rule, and hence

it was that we showed no desire to advance the interests of the town or its

residents by increasing the issue of our journal until it seemed apparent that the increasing importance of the town was such as was likely to yield us some-thing like a fair return for the additional labor and outlay this step would involve us in. We judge that time to have now arrived, and henceforth the Argus will appear twice a week. It is an acknowledged fact that amongst a large proportion of the people of the colonies, the local press is taken as the means of arriving at an estimate of a district's importance. It shall be our endeavor in conducting the bi-weekly issue of the Argus, to do our part to ensure the welfare of the Warwick

district in this respect. We shall look for and endeavor to deserve the support of business men and residence of the town generally. Without this our efforts of course, must fail; but of this being the result we have little fear.

We wish to say a few words or two in explanation of the days we have

chosen for the issue of the paper. Our local contemporary having chosen Wed-nesdays and Saturdays we did not think it wise to take the news at second hand by continuing to issue on Thurs-days, and to have changed the early issue to Tuesday, and the paper will in future make its appearance on Tuesday and Saturday mornings. The time in-tervening between the Saturday's and Tuesday's issue will, we are aware, be very short for the preparation of a paper in a town where news worthy of record is so scarce but we hope, never-theless, to be able to make both issues interesting and readable. and with this object in view will publish telegraphic news from Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and elsewhere, up to the hour of going to press.

THE honorable gentlemen who write the magic letters " M.L.A." after their names, and who congregate at irregu-lar intervals in George-street, Brishane, have been playing at high jinks during tbe past week. It will be remembered that the leader of the Opposition, about a fortnight since, moved And sought to carry a vote of want of confidence in the Ministry, and, after several nights of tedious debate, the Government forced the question to a division, scor-ing a victory by a majority of three votes. Just before the division was taken-about midnight-one one or two of the lesser lights who site on Mr. Speaker's left appealed to the leader of the Government to consent to a fur-

ther adjourment of the debate, as they were anxious to speak on the question. Mr, M'ILWRAITH, however, refused to grant the request, alleging that the discussion had already occu-pied too much of the time of the House. How far he was right in thus stopping discussion on a question of such vital importance to the country as his works policy, we do not now intend to argue his doing so, however, had the one al-most inevitable consequence of incens-ing members of the Opposition, and urging them to seise the very first op-portunity that occurred of re-opening the debate, and going over the whole of the ground that had already been tra-versed by the leaders of the party. The opportunity occurred on Wednes-day last, when as stated in the tele-grams published in our last, Mr. Groom took advantage of the Premier's motion for going into Supply, to ex-press his disapproval of the action of the leader of Government. In a lengthy speech, he reviewed the policy of the Go-vernment, and expressed his determin-ation to stonewall the Loan Estimates by opposing the passage of the amounts set down for the extension of the trunk lines into the interior shilling by shil-ling. The member for Toowoomba was followed by Mr. Crimes, and by Mr. Horwitz, who said he intended to op-pose both branch and trunk lines, for the reason that there were no plans on the table. He thought much money bad been lost owing to too great haste in commencing lines; in future no money should be voted till the lines had been surveyed. Referring to the proposed branch line to Killarney, he

said that unless taken through the farm-

ing districts-which would increase its

length to five or sis and twenty miles-it could not be made payable. The

trunk lines could not be constructed for anything like the amounts set down for them, and the ultimate consequence of the House sanctioning their com-mencement would be additional tax-

ation. Therefore he intended to op-pose the vote. Mr. Stubley followed, and in opening a lengthy speech con-demnatory of the Ministerial works, policy, expressed his determination to use every means in his power to ob-

struct the passage of the railway items of the Loan vote. Ultimately the House went into Supply, and £100,000 for immigration was passed, not, how-ever, before a coupie of hours had been spent in discussion. At 1 o'clock on Thursday morning, the Premier moved the railway vote of £1,170,000, The Opposition appealed to the leader of the Government to consent to a post-ponement of the vote, but Mr. M'IL-WRAITH distinctly refused to do so, and preparation were made by the Opposi-tion to stonewall the vote. Hon. mem-bers on both sides prepared to make a night of it, and talking against time was resorted to. Seems, anything but creditable to those members who cre-ated them, occurred not Infrequently, and several time, we learn from the Courier, the Chairman was appealed to "with a view to the maintenance of

Parliamentary practice." The House

sat on till 8 o'clock in the afternoon,

when the Speaker took the chair, and Thursday's sitting was commenced. After the disposal of the formal busi-ness, the Premier again attempted to fa foe the railway vote, but the Opposi-tion immediately re-commenced their "stonewall" tactics. The sitting was merely a repetition of the previous night's, and included disquisitions on the suitability of the grases of the western interior for hay (Mr. GRIMES),

tbe untameable nature of the wild ass of the wilderness (Mr. MOREHEAD), &c. The sitting continued throughout the night, and up till 1 o'clock on Friday afternoon, when, according to the forms of the House, it died a natural death-that is, it had sat out the allowed weekly span allowed by the sessional orders. And thus, after three days and two nights continuous sittings, the business of the Home was left in exactly the same position, if we except the passage of the immigration vote, as it stood when the House met on Wednesday afternoon. We notice that the metro-

politan papers are extremely wrath at the conduct of the Opposition, arguing that the conrse they are pursuing is un-parliamentary, and can have no good result. The former accusation may be true, though we rather incline to a

contrary view, but the latter is not. That it is unlikely to have any good result we are quite prepared to admit,

but there can be no question that if it were persisted in it would have the ef-fect of bringing about a dissolution, and we hold strongly to the opinion

that if the constituencies were again afforded the opportunity of expressing their opinions, Mr. MiILWRAITH would find that, though he leads a majority of the recruits who were elected to the Assembly last November, he certainly does not represent the opinions of the majority of the people.

We learnt towards the latter end of the week, from members of the Oppo-sition, that the "stonewall" tactics were to be resorted to when the vote came on again yesterday. [Our tele-grams, below, intimate that an under-standing has been arrived at.]