John Christian Watson (known as Chris Watson) was the first Federal Parliamentary Labor Party (FPLP) leader and from May 1901 to October 1907. During this time, while sitting on the cross benches between Alfred Deakin’s Protectionists and George Reid’s Free Traders, Labor regularly held the balance of power. For a short stint between April and August 1904, Watson was (the first world Labor and Australia’s youngest) prime minister and treasurer. Watson resigned as FPLP leader on 23 October 1907. By choosing not to contest his seat, Watson left parliament on 29 April 1910. It is Watson’s resignation as FPLP leader that is the focus of this paper. By drawing on a repository of newspaper clippings once owned by Watson and now held by the National Library of Australia along with Trove Digitised Newspapers, this article analyses the reporting of the week surrounding Watson’s resignation including the question if Watson’s retained articles favoured a particular stance. The paper concludes that newspapers were of the opinion that the stress of the job and subsequent ill health it induced, led to Watson’s resignation. Hence, this paper’s focus is contained to Watson’s resignation, a period of newspaper reporting and collections.

约翰·克里斯蒂安·沃森（又名克里斯·沃森）是第一位联邦议会工党 (FPLP) 领导人，从 1901 年 5 月到 1907 年 10 月。在此期间，工党经常坐在阿尔弗雷德·迪肯 (Alfred Deakin) 的保护主义者和乔治·里德 (George Reid) 的自由贸易者之间的交叉长椅上保持了力量的平衡。1904 年 4 月至 8 月期间，沃森曾短暂担任过（世界上第一位工党和澳大利亚最年轻的）总理兼财务主管。沃森于 1907 年 10 月 23 日辞去 FPLP 领导人的职务。通过选择不竞选他的席位，沃森于 1910 年 4 月 29 日离开议会。沃森辞去 FPLP 领导人的职务是本文的重点。通过利用曾经由 Watson 拥有、现在由澳大利亚国家图书馆与 Trove Digitized Newspapers 一起持有的剪报库，本文分析了围绕 Watson 辞职的一周的报道，包括 Watson 保留的文章是否支持特定立场的问题。该论文的结论是，报纸认为，工作压力和随之而来的健康状况不佳导致沃森辞职。因此，本文的重点是华生的辞职，一段时期的报纸报道和收藏。