The following excerpt was published in The Launceston Examiner on Saturday, March 12, 1842, by John West.
“In proposing the establishment of another journal in Van Diemen’s Land it may be proper to state its principles and delineate its plan; more than this would be superfluous: to apologise would be mere affectation; we expect – we ask no favour, unless our exertions to instruct and please appear to deserve it. A strong and general impression exists that the multifarious interests, increased population, and advancing influences of this town and neighbourhood, demand the establishment of an additional newspaper having aspired to fill the acknowledged vacancy, we are resolved to maintain our position with spirit and resolution, to win the confidence, a new undertaking can hardly be expected to command, and, while looking to the public as our only patron, to recognise it as our only judge.
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The legitimate province of the press has long been settled and defined, and notwithstanding its occasional perversion, its immense public utility is fully perceived and admitted. Stronger than charters and laws for the protection of the people, it has raised a tribunal, before which the best of the rulers bow, and the worst of despots tremble, approach of political danger, and preserves the social edifice from injuries, which could not be averted by arms.
Keen to discover and prompt to tell obnoxious truths, its collective voice cannot be restrained by terror, or stifled by corruption. Representatives may be intimidated or bribed, and the forms of freedom may survive its principles, but so long as the press exists the spirit of liberty can never perish: its summons will arouse the people to defend their rights when they are invaded – to recover them when they are lost. The press has other important functions to perform. All the complicated concerns of man, his wide-spreading relationships, his intellectual achievements, his commercial enterprise, his duties, his wants, his sorrows – all these combine to form the field from whence the diligent journalist may gather instruction, and give importance, variety, and interest to his labours.”
... maintain our position with spirit and resolution ... while looking to the public as our only patron, to recognise it as our only judge.
- John West
