A TRUE JOURNALIST.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2447, 21 January 1881, Page 4

A TRUE JOURNALIST.

Mr David Syme, proprietor of the “Melbourne Age,” left Victoria for England lately. Before his departure he was entertained at breakfast by a number of Victorian “Liberals,” including Mr Graham Berry. The Victorian Premier must have felt awkward during the delivery of the following portion of Mr Syrne’s speech in response to the toast of bis health. The proprietor of the “Age said:—“All the epithets that were coined for Mr Berry were applied to me, and some new ones were added. I would not have cared for being attacked had I given any occasion for it, hut my opponents had not the* shadow of an excuse for acting as they did, I never courted publicity in any shape or form. I never obtruded myself on public notice in any' way that I am aware of. I was not a member of Parliament. I never contested a seat in my life though I have often been asked to stand, I did not display myself at public meetings. I did not bang about the steps of the Treasury, or haunt the lobbies of Parliament House. I held no stipendiary or honorary position in the gift of the Government. I was not a J.P. I was not a trustee of any public institution, 1 was not even an Exhibition Commissioner.— (Laughter). Possibly I might have been any of those, but! have through life purposely refused to put myself under any obligation to any Ministry, for reasons you can understand And as I had refused to accept favours myself, I had also declined them for the members of my family. I never asked a favour for any relative of mine from any Government whatever.— (Hear, bear.) Why I had, under these circumstances, been singled out for attack I am at a loss to understand, unless it was because my name modestly appeared on the imprint of the “Age.”