History of the New England newspaper press 20 - Drummond goes to the circus

 Wirth’s Circus 1941. Photo State Library. The touring circus that Drummond spoke to at half time were a feature of country life.

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

The offer by Stephen Cosh to drive Drummond around the electorate free of charge “except for petrol and a tyre or two” did prove a Godsend. 

They moved from meeting to meeting, up to ten in day. Drummond would usually spoke in the open air (during the whole campaign he only spoke in halls three times including his campaign opening in the Inverell Town Hall) then adjourn to a room with his local committee to sign scrutineer and other forms and lay out the plan of organisation. 

After the meetings were finished, he and Stephen would retire, often as late as 1 am, to a quiet place in the countryside to spend the night. 

The travellers had always to be ready for the unexpected. One night Drummond arrived at Ashford to find the whole village in darkness, for the circus was in town and the whole countryside was at it. 

There was no chance of coming back Drummond therefore asked the manager if he could speak at half-time. He responded dubiously, “that if I could stand it he supposed he could.”

At half time Drummond bounded into the Ring with a small wooden box:. "Ladies & Gentlemen. My name is David Drummond Progressive Candidate at the forthcoming State Election. Take a good look at me and make up your mind what you think of me. Vote Drummond No. 1". 

Grabbing the box, he made a fast exit before the bottles etc. began to fly. “That was the shortest political speech I ever made”, he later recalled. 

Considering that the other Progressive candidates would concentrate first on the towns, Drummond focused on the country districts. 

In those days, before radio and television, politicians could still attract large public audiences. Since Drummond was the first candidate in the field it was not unusual to find ninety to one hundred people gathered at some agreed cross roads, “really alert and stirred up to break free from being run by ‘City Lawyers’ & nominees of the Nationalist Party Executives”.

Drummond usually devoted the first half of his speech to an explanation of proportional representation. This always gained a good response and allowed him to preach his political message during the second half of his speech. 

His theme was always 'Decentralization, Development and Decent Government'. He usually finished by saying that “Parties, Platforms and Policies existed for only one reason, the good government of the people. When they ceased to serve this end they should cease.”

Drummond was now developing campaign guidelines that he generally observed throughout his long political career.

“I never made the mistake then or later of slanging my opponents. I simply ignored their existence. Never did I make the cardinal blunder of dealing with past incidents in Parliament. ‘You people know all about what has been happening in the past in Parliament. What you are interested in hearing is the Policy of the Progressives’ & I went on to explain my own version of that policy.” 

This approach was “new and held an audience tired of the old political clap.” It also “compelled the opposition to fight on a battle ground of my own choosing.”

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