History of the New England newspaper press 16 - Drummond points to neglect of country

Despite all his abilities and campaign experience, Sir Robert Archdale Parker (1878-1947) could not stop the flow of National Party members to the newly formed Progressive Party.  

This is the sixteenth in a series on the history of the media and especially the newspaper press in New England, the ninth column on the emergence of the NSW Country Party. 

In November 1919, Inverell share farmer David Drummond, was asked to take on the position of electorate organiser for the newly formed Progressive Party. He agreed to do so on two conditions: 

First that my acceptance would not invalidate my right to be a candidate. When I had received their assurance that I would still be eligible to contest at the elections, my next condition was that I would accept no payment for my services apart from out of pocket expenses.

The first of these conditions was later to be of crucial importance.

The electoral climate was right for the Progressives. They represented the new ideas and beliefs in the countryside at a time when their main rivals, the Nationalists, were in disarray. 

In mid November, and despite visits by Premier Holman and key National Party campaign organiser Archdale Parkhill, the secretary of the Armidale Branch of the party, Alfred Purkiss, was forced to admit that 'half the active Nationalists look as if they will go over to the ranks of the Progressive Party'.

Drummond threw himself into the organising campaign. In the first six weeks he covered all the Tablelands except for Tenterfield, meeting with considerable success. His only setback was in Armidale where ill-health (he had badly overtired himself) led to the failure of the first organising attempt.

Drummond returned to Armidale on Saturday 24 January 1920, and this time successfully formed a branch. He also met R.N. Hickson, a local architect and former New South Wales cricketer, who was to be his electoral secretary and a key supporter for forty years. 

Drummond's speech at the second Armidale meeting was typical of his message. 

The National Party, he told his audience, 'was controlled purely by vested city interests and the Labor Party by the industrial interests of Sydney.' Since Parliament was controlled by city interests supported by the city press, the country had been neglected. Further, the pre-selection systems used by those city parties had degraded government and politics. 

The only solution was a party that represented country interests, that would provide cross country railways and ports and stop the drift to the city. Drummond summarised the Party's policy as 'decentralization, development and decent government.' 

With the organising campaign well under way, the Progressive's Electorate Council met at Glen Innes early in 1920 to consider candidates. In addition to Drummond, seven nominations had been received from the branches. 

The preselection campaign that followed would be hotly contested. 

Note to readers: This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

History of the New England newspaper press 15 - Northern Tableland Progressive Party Electoral Council formed in 1919 but what next?

 FSA President Arthur Trethowan had a problem: the new Progressive Party had a name but no local political organisation. David Drummond provided a solution.

This is the fifteenth in a series on the history of the media and especially the newspaper press in New England, the eighth column on the emergence of the NSW Country Party. 

In late October 1919, farmers and graziers formed a Northern Tableland Progressive Party Electoral Council at Glen Innes, followed by a further meeting on 4 November which was convened and addressed by Arthur Trethowan, the President of the Farmers and Settlers’ Association (FSA). Trethowan provided details of the new party and suggested that its object was 'to secure direct country representation in the Federal and State Parliaments'.

Those attending the meeting found that they may have had a name but they certainly had no political organisation to put Trethowan’s objective into effect. It was therefore decided to ask David Drummond to take on the position of electorate organiser. 

The invitation was a sign of how far the deaf, poorly educated ward of the state had come since his arrival in Armidale as 17 year old farm labourer on that cold day in 1907. 

From his arrival his arrival in the Inverell district in 1912 and especially after his marriage to Pearl in 1913, Drummond had become actively involved in the small farming community around Oakwood. He and Pearl played tennis, he became an active member of the FSA and also became a Methodist lay preacher. 

To improve his preaching, he taught himself public speaking, practicing while riding around the property, addressing the paddocks. He had no tutor, but used self-help books given to him by his brothers. 

Years later, his grandson would use the same books to learn the art of projection. Years after that, the same techniques would be taught to his great granddaughters as they learned to project their voices in whispers down the corridors of Sydney’s’ semi-detached houses. 

The powerful sonorous voice that Drummond developed would become one of his political weapons, capable of reaching a large open air audience without the aid of loud speakers.

It was as a Methodist lay preacher that Drummond met Ernest Christian Sommerlad, a fellow lay preacher and man that would be critical to Drummond’s successful entry to politics. 

Sommelad, the youngest of twelve children of German parents John Henry Sommerlad, Tenterfield farmer, and his wife Louisa Wilhelmina, née Marstella, was four years older than Drummond. 

A devout Christian, Sommerlad had wanted to become a missionary. Thwarted by poor health, he had turned to journalism and was editor of the Inverell Argus when he first met Drummond. 

In 1918 Sommerlad purchased the Glen Innes Examiner with a bank loan guaranteed by local business men. This would give the little known Drummond a powerful platform. 

For the moment, Drummond had to decide whether to accept the request to become Northern Tablelands organiser for the new Progressive Party. He agreed to do so, but with conditions that would later prove critical. 

Note to readers: This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

History of the New England newspaper press 14 - putting farming ideas into practice

Pearl Goode around the time of her marriage to David Drummond. While quiet and shy, she fitted well into the small farming community around Oakwood. 

This is the fourteenth in a series on the history of the media and especially the newspaper press in New England, the seventh column on the emergence of the NSW Country Party 

The eye for detail revealed by David Drummond's observations of cooperative harvesting techniques around Armidale reflected his growing interest in farming practice. The lad absorbed the techniques he saw, sorting out in his mind those he would later follow.

In 1911, Drummond was given an opportunity to put his developing ideas into practice.

John Ewing, produce manager for the Pastoral Finance Association, had some spare capital and began thinking about purchasing a block of land. Ewing discussed his plans with David’s brother Morris who arranged for David to inspect the land in question.

Inverell, on the western edge of the Tablelands, had long been known as a fine farming district. However, in the absence of a rail link farmers were effectively limited to their local market by the high cost of transport.

This changed in 1902 with the opening of the railway line to Moree: Between 1904 and 1914 landowners with holdings within twenty-four kilometres of the new line sold at least part of their land to farmers. As part of this process Bannockburn, one of the district's oldest grazing properties, was subdivided and put up for sale.

The block Drummond looked at was 518 hectares of mainly arable basalt soil with a half kilometre frontage to the MacIntyre River. While undeveloped, it clearly had potential and Drummond recommended its purchase. Drummond was then offered the position of manager, an offer he eagerly accepted. 

“From a weekly wage of 1 [pound]... and board and lodging, I became at 21 years of age Manager of 'Maxwelton' with a share in the wheat harvests”, he later wrote with some pride.

Drummond packed his goods into a 'spider' sulky drawn by a half-bred welsh pony and, with a six-month-old foal and a sheep dog attached, and returned to Maxwelton to begin development.

The work was not easy. The virgin black soil was hard to plough and weather conditions proved difficult. Still, by the end of 1912 Drummond could look on his results with satisfaction.

Settled, his mind turned to other matters. He had met the Goode family while working at Arding south of Armidale, John Goode had come to the district to search for gold on the nearby Rocky River goldfields, but had then preselected land at Arding and become a successful farmer.

Drummond asked for the hand of Pearl, John and Ellen Goode's twenty-five-year-old daughter. She accepted him and the couple were married on 11 March 1913 by Arthur Johnstone in the Methodist Church at Arding.

The newly married couple settled down to life in the small farming community centred around Oakwood, the village that had sprung up with the development of the farms. Pearl was quiet and shy, but also had the capacity to make friends.

Travelling by sulky along the black soil tracks, she and David joined in the social activities of the community, visiting, playing tennis, or attending the church functions that played such a key part in community life, building the links that would later draw Drummond into politics.  

Note to readers: This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020