John Norton (journalist)

John Norton (25 January 1857 – 9 April 1916) was an English-born Australian journalist, editor and member of the New South Wales Parliament. He was a writer and newspaper proprietor best known for his Sydney newspaper Truth. Norton was arguably one of Australia's most controversial public figures ever.

Quotes

• The discovery and settlement of America and Australia are the two most important events of modern times. Christopher Columbus and Captain Cook were the saviours of society.
  • The History of Capital and Labour (Sydney: Oceanic Publishing, 1888), Introduction

• The Queen has lived for 70 years, for 70 years and three,
  And few have lived a flatter life, more useless life than she;
  She never did a clever thing or wrote a clever line,
  She never did a noble deed in coming times to shine,
  And yet we read and still we read in every magazine
  The praises of this woman whom the English call the Queen,
  Whom the English call the Queen,
  The dull and brainless woman whom the English call "the Queen".
  • On Queen Victoria (1894), quoted in Cyril Pearl, Wild Men of Sydney (London, 1958), p. 116
  • Cp. the Earl of Rochester's epigram on Charles II

• Give 'em hogwash. They love it.
  • Quoted in Cole Turnley, Cole of the Book Arcade (Melbourne, 1974), p. 174