NEWSPAPERS
(Contd.)
bongo 7.45
A Chinese edition was also produced in the early years, and continued for several decades.
By 1860 we find the paper being produced at Chancery Lane, Old Bailey Street (where the China Mail was also located at the time). The latter was still a weekly; but the Daily Press "issued every morning except Sunday, as the notice states, had by now a rival morning daily in the old Hong Kong Register, reorganised to meet the new arrival's challenge. As we have seen in an earlier article, however, the Register did not survive for long. By 1862 the China Mail issued a daily evening edition, and the new journalism was definitely established in the Colony.
In 1863 the Daily Press offices had moved to Wyndham Street, "opposite St. Paul's College," in premises known as College Chambers. This location continued for a number of years, and it was not until the Nineties that the offices were moved to 9, Praya Central, a locality which became an inland point when the reclamation was constructed towards the end of last century. In 1923 premises were taken at Wanchai, and when the Hong Kong Telegraph moved from Ice House Street in 1925, the Daily Press occupied the vacated offices there.
By 1870, Mr. Murrow had returned to England and Mr. William H. Bell leased the paper from him and continued to run it out here. He was in turn succeeded by Mr. R. Chaterton Wilcox late in the Seventies. Mr Murrow retained the proprietorship, however, and when he died it passed to his son.
In yesterday's article reference was made to Dixson's Hong Kong Recorder, which was commenced in 1851, was produced thrice weekly and existed for a little less than a decade. It was almost entirely a commercial journal. We might take a brief look at a few other such periodicals of the period.
One of the earliest was the China Overland Trade Report which, as its name implies, was intended to be sent by mail overland from Marseilles, by the quick route opened at the time, so as to give merchants at Home the earliest commercial advices relating to business out here. It appeared bi-monthly, and in addition to trade matters had a summary of the fortnight's general news, including items from Canton and the outports. It commenced publication in 1857, at the time the Daily Press, of which it was a subsidiary, appeared. The imprint carries the same names as the Daily Press issues; we might merely note here that three changes occurred during 1877: the name of William H. Bell, who published the Trade Report for a number of years, gives place in April that year to D. Warres Smith, who in turn is replaced in November by R. Chetterton Wilcox, the last-named continuing as publisher for a long period afterwards. The offices were, of course, the same as for the parent daily paper. The publication was merged, as improved mail facilities came into operation, in the weekly edition of the Daily Press.
Similarly, the Overland China Mail was issued fortnightly, and then weekly, when the postal service improved and a weekly mail for England became available in the Nineties.
Of a purely commercial nature was the Hong Kong Shipping List which can probably claim to be the first daily publication to appear here, for it commenced in 1856. The few copies that remain to-day have no imprint, so the publishers is for the present unknown. It consisted of a single sheet, giving nothing but arrivals and departures of steamers and shipping items of immediate moment. It was delivered to subscribers at a cost of $2 a month. The advent of daily papers with