NEWSPAPERS (Contd.)
Government Gazette was established as "the only official organ of Proclamations, Notifications and all public papers of the Government."
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Mr. Andrew Scott Dixson also published, apparently as a side-line, Dixson's Hong Kong Recorder. This commenced in 1851, and had a circulation of 500 to 600, being issued gratis and depending on its advertisements for revenue. It appeared thrice weekly, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It consisted of four pages, with an occasional extra two pages as a supplement, and contained mostly shipping and commercial items. The publishing offices in 1855 were in Hollywood Road, but for a period in 1856 are given as being situated in "Old Baylie and Shelley Streets, Victoria, Hong Kong". In 1857, however, the location is again given as Hollywood Road. This journal seems to have ceased publication on the departure of Mr. Dixson, and no trace is left of it by the close of the Fifties.
Other periodicals of a more or less commercial nature appeared between 1855 and 1870, but mention of these will have to be left over for a subsequent instalment of this series.
Although Hong Kong was well supplied with newspapers of its own within five years of its cession to Britain, these were all weekly issues, and it was the Hong Kong Daily Press which introduced daily morning journalism to the Colony in 1857. The original issue of this paper appeared on October 1, that year, and set a fashion which its competitors were compelled to adopt in order to keep in the race.
The original Daily Press was of small size, the pages being about half the size of the existing papers with which it was competing, but its daily appearance must have meant an early advantage. There were four pages, the greater amount of material having to do with ships and shipping; in fact, this was the reason for founding the publication, as set forth in its initial leading article. The original caption is also interesting. The name was given in plain type; while a sketch comprising a three-masted ship, an old-type paddle wheeler, a pile of bales, and an anchor, appeared at the top of the front page. Below this, as a sub-title, was printed, "Ships Commerce and Colonies." The whole of the back page, and most of page 3, consisted of lists of arrivals and departures of shipping.
We find in the imprint that the paper was first published by Luiz J. Jesus, at the Armenian Press, Wellington Street, for Geo. M. Ryder, editor and proprietor, of the "Queen's Road Dispensary," Hong Kong. Mr. Ryder, however, was bought out not long afterwards by Mr. Yorick Jones Murrow, who is now a resident of Hong Kong. The last issue on which the name of Mr. Ryder appears is dated January 22, 1858. Under Mr. Y. J. Murrow's control, the paper prospered and became something of a power in the island, its criticisms of the Government when occasion arose being often biting and to a certain extent effective. Mr. Murrow had come to China in 1838, and was one of the Colony's shipping and commercial pioneers. His career is remarkable enough to warrant being made the subject of a future article in "Old Hong Kong."
To revert to the subject of the Daily Press, Mr. Murrow took it over in 1858, and edited the paper for a long period, retaining an active interest in it until the time of his death in 1884.