Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/630

 604 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY The AHreriis,r was sufficient. Then came a iwo-feeder Wharfedale machine, with a capacity of 3,000 imj)ressions an hour; this being followed, in 1876, by a four-feeder Hoe, equal to printing 8,000 sheets an hour. In 1881 a Prestonian perfecting machine, capable of producing and . folding 10,000 complete copies of T/tc Advertiser each hour, was set in motion by the then Governor, Sir V. Y. D. Jervois ; and on September 24, 1892, his Excellency the Earl of Kintore started a Marinoni machine with stereotyping plant, the Prestonian being also adapted to the same method of printing. Each successive Governor has during his term of office been called upon to honor by his presence the inauguration of some further advance in the mechanical equipment of 7"he Advertiser, Thus, on Saturday, December 12, 1896, Sir T. Fowell Buxton set in motion a splendid new Hoe machine, and on Saturday, June 9, 1900, Lord Tennyson turned on steam to a magnificent three-reel Hoe machine, of the very latest design, with a capacity of 24,000 copies of The Advertiser an hour. This machine will print a paper of 24 pages with nine columns to the page. The Advertiser has now two of these mammoth machines, in addition to a Marinoni similar to those on which the Paris Figaro — which has the largest circulation in the world — is printed. It was the first daily in South Australia to print from stereotype plates, and generally its mechanical department is equipped in a fashion equal to that of any newspaper in Australia. The setting of the paper is done by the marvellous linotype, which is acknowledged by all who have seen it to be a triumph of inventive skill. The gas engine, which is available in time of emergency for driving the whole of the plant, is the largest of its class within the confines of the Commonwealth ; but there are also two steam engines. The establishment has been lighted throughout by electricity for many years, and indeed it was one of the Adelaide pioneers of this system. Although many names were associated with the inception of The Advertiser its real founder was the Hon. J. H. Barrow. He was born in England, and early developed a taste for literary pursuits. Mr. Barrow came to Adelaide in 1852, and accepted the pastorate of the Clayton Congregational Church. He soon joined the staff of the only Adelaide daily paper then in existence, and subsequently succeeded the late Dr. Garran, of Sydney, as principal leader writer. Just previous to the date on which The Advertiser came into existence, Mr. Barrow had accepted an invitation to stand for Parliament, and his popularity and reputation were so great and widespread that he was elected unopposed. After a short period of service in the Assembly he retired, and stood for the Legislative Council, to which he obtained entrance at the head of the poll in March, 1861. There he stayed until 1871, when he again entered the Lower House as member for the .Slurt, a district afterwards represented by his partner, the late Mr. T. King. During the whole term of his Parliamentary service Mr. Barrow not only found time to conduct the paper over which he had control, but for 18 months he filled, with advantage to the Province, the post of Treasurer in an Administration of which the late Sir Henry Ayers was Premier. Mr. Barrow died on August 22, 1874, in the 58th year of his age, and it was written of him by one who had many opportunities of judging : — " Pew men who ever came to South Australia obtained such a large amount of personal influence, or exerted such a large amount of political power on the people here. Soon after his arrival in the Colony he became connected