John WEST

WEST, JOHN (b. 17 Jan 1809, d. Sydney NSW, 11 Dec 1874). Congregational minister journalist, editor.

The son of a Nonconformist minister, West was raised in a cultured environment, and well-educated. His parents were products of the full heat of Methodist revival, and it has been suggested that 'one or both of them knew John Wesley'. (Slayter, 6) It is certain that he maintained an involvement in Wesleyan affairs, an influence that later kept him a relatively evangelical voice in the progressive Congregational church. In 1829 he was both married and called into the Congregational Church as a home missionary in Essex. He probably met his employer-to-be, and fellow Congregationalist, John Fairfax while ministering in Warwickshire in 1834. Shortly thereafter, he moved for four years to Coleshill, outside Birmingham, an area which, though he was to deny that he had ever been 'acquainted with any chartist', exposed him to the upheavals of the 1830s decisive for liberal institutions in England. He attended lectures 'on behalf of the Abolition of Slavery', which demonstrates the moral (as opposed to political) interventionism which marked his long public career. Pike claims that his disappointment was shared by some decided nonconformist liberals that 'civil and religious liberty made little more progress in the 'thirties than in the 'twenties'. (Pike, 25) True or not, that disappointment in part produced an exodus to new lands, in which West joined. He remained firm friends with leaders of SA dissent such as Thomas Stow and the Sydney-based Congregationalist 'Venetian Oligarchy' centring on David Jones (q.v.), John Fairfax (q.v.) and Ambrose Foss.

In 1838 West was accepted for service in the fledgling Colonial Missionary Society, arriving in VDL on 21 Dec 1838 aboard the brig Emu with a wife, five small children, payment of his passage and one year's guaranteed salary. Perhaps it was in consideration of his family that he shortly thereafter abandoned the itinerant post to which he had been appointed, and moved into more settled Launceston. Here West established the second independent congregation in that city, and served for twelve years. After preaching in a primary school for some years, he began construction of what became 'St John's-square Chapel', in the pulpit of which he built a colony-wide reputation as a powerful preacher. People were not only attracted to West's oratory, but astonished at the depth of his reading and thought. Button, writing his reminiscences, simply referred to West as that 'man of colossal intellect'. Over his years in that city, his energies as a citizen and minister were illustrated by his involvement in establishing the Mechanics Institute, the City Mission a non-denominational High School, and (with James Aikenhead (q.v.) 1842) the Launceston Examiner. West demonstrated a remarkable range of talent and energy, at one time or another acting as minister, prominent civic organiser, educationalist, agitator, and journalist. In him could be seen a liberal, lively Christianity which took seriously the conception of society as a 'moral organism', and 'realized, as few do, his sacred and sublime vocation, to serve his own generation'. (Slayter, 7)

As his missionary experience suggests, he was strong-willed, with a deep commitment to his calling and the service of his generation. He was typical of the nonconformist tradition of Midlands England. In the Launceston Examiner he supported laissez-faire, savings banks, the bounty system of immigration, and bitterly opposed protective tariffs, the restriction of interest rates, high prices for crown land, and state aid for denominational schools.

West reached the height of his career as a journalist when he became editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, and it is mostly as editor that one can gain some idea of his abilities as they operate in various circumstances: 'His sense of the power of the Press amounted to a passion'. (Slayter, 8) He wrote a great deal for the paper, as well as a variety of pamphlets on topics varying from abolition to voluntaryism. In later years he continuously wrote both the Herald's leaders and editorials, being particularly influential through his series of 18 articles on the 'Union of the Colonies' (published under the name of John Adams), which foreshadowed Australian Federation and informed much of the debate. West's greatest campaign was against transportation while he was still based in Launceston. He attacked it on economic as well as moral grounds. The evangelical tradition in his family and his early exposure to the anti-slavery movement helped form his attitudes to this second 'great campaign'. Increasingly, as the campaign shifted from local protest to inter-colonial discussion, the possibilities of federation gained a hold on his mind. As a liberal, he welcomed it not merely as a desirable end in itself, but as a method of liberation, for the establishment of those rights and practices so often blocked by entrenched privilege in Britain. Concern with the future was one way colonials had of understanding the past, as 'what shall we be?' was sought for in the various answers to the question 'what have we been?'. This was, West suggested, prompted by the members' anxiety for 'the moral and social welfare of their sons', who could not but look upon the present state of the island with 'feelings of horror'. (West, History, 214) The publication of his History of Tasmania in 1852, therefore, not only marked the birth of true historical thought in Australia, but was really the capstone of all his efforts in the areas of anti-transportation and colonial rights. This book remained the standard history of Tasmania for over a century.

In later years, his editorials in the Sydney Morning Herald covered a wide range of topics, most of which displayed his 'liberal conservative' beliefs. He defended, for instance, free trade, and retained a 'liberal' trust in 'education and enlightenment' as paths for the reconciliation and advancement of men. Here was a thoroughgoing creed, the type that, wedded to a dynamic faith, informed a whole life rather than simply a work. Though the church was in constant need of missionaries and funds, and towards the end of the century came under attack from higher criticism and liberalising forces, he retained a calm faith in the action of God in history: 'What hath God wrought? The errors [of the church] were not new - they had long existed - but sinners, notwithstanding, were brought to the cross of Christ - not to the symbol, but to a full reliance on the doctrine of the atonement'. Saving souls into a reasonable faith, and working for the general good of society, West was a worthy son of mid-century British evangelicalism.

ADB 2; John West, The History of Tasmania, 1852 (facs, ed, A G L Shaw); William Slayter, A Funeral Sermon on the Life and Death of the Rev. John West (Sydney, 1874); Gavin Souter, A Company of Heralds: A Century and a Half of Australian Publishing by John Fairfax Limited and its predecessors, 1831-1981 (Melbourne, 1981); John West, 'To the Rev. Thomas James, Secretary to the Colonial Missionary Society ... ' (ML); Douglas Pike, Paradise of Dissent: South Australia 1829-1857 (Melbourne, 1967)

MARK HUTCHINSON