David Syme
David Syme (2 October 1827 – 14 February 1908) was a 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.
He had naturally a kind disposition; he was a devoted husband, and no-one ever asked him for help that he did not freely give … but his affection for us never found expression in words".
He had thoughts of qualifying for the ministry but revolted from the Calvinistic teaching of the day;[3] his brothers George and Ebenezer had renounced the Church of Scotland.
[1] Syme studied under James Morison at Kilmarnock for two years,[1] attended some classes at Heidelberg and returned to Scotland obtaining a position about 1850 as a proofreader's assistant on a Glasgow newspaper.
[3] With low pay and little prospect of advancement, he sailed for San Francisco by way of Cape Horn in 1851 and arrived after a voyage of five months to search for gold but had little success.
[1] On 13 March 1860 Ebenezer died, and finding it was difficult to sell The Age, Syme decided to abandon his contracting and carry on the paper.
The task of running the newspaper was a difficult one, and only the fact that the proprietor was willing to work 15 hours a day made success possible.
The original policies 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.
As a comparison, 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.
The struggle went on for years, but Syme's belief that the people as a whole should rule, rather than any one section of them, was finally established, and for a long period The Age became the predominant factor in Victorian politics.
As an example of the 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".
When the issue of Federation became important towards the end of the century it was Deakin, a journalistic protégé of Syme's, who became the leader of the movement in Victoria.
[1] During the first federal parliament Syme 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.
The Dictionary of Australasian Biography (1892) noted that Syme's book "provoked warm opposition and attracted great attention.
[9] Wallace concluded that "Mr. Syme has a considerable reputation in other departments of literature as a powerful writer and acute critic; but he has entirely mistaken his vocation in this feeble and almost puerile attempt to overthrow the vast edifice of fact and theory raised by the genius and the life-long labours of Darwin.
"[11] Syme wrote several books while owner of The Age: the first, Outlines of an Industrial Science, (London, 1876) is largely a vindication of protection and is also a plea for the extension of the activities of the state.
Syme's last volume, The Soul: A Study and an Argument (1903), discusses the nature of life, instinct, memory, mind, and survival after death.
Syme also involved himself in 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 (equivalent to $530,000 in 2022) to the University of Melbourne to endow the Syme Prize for research in biology, chemistry, geology and natural philosophy.
[3] Syme was hailed on his death as "one of the greatest men in colonial history" by his friend, then Prime Minister Alfred Deakin.
