NEWSPAPERS (Contd.)
shipping lists evidently led to withdrawal of this publication I can find no trace of it beyond 1860.
769
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There was, however, an effort to run a purely commercial and shipping paper in the Seventies. This was the Daily Advertiser and Shipping Gazette, published by Mr. H. P. C. Lassed, at "No.5 Corner of Wellington and D'Aguilar Street, Victoria, Hong Kong" according to the imprint. It was started in 1871, consisting of four pages, confined to subjects indicated by the title. The paper was not for sale, but was issued to subscribers. Apparently it was intended to take the place of the old Shipping List but again seems to have found the two daily papers keen competitors, and in 1873 was reorganised and issued as a "live" morning paper under the new name of the Hong Kong Times, retaining its former caption as a subsidiary title.
A decidedly promising start was made, and kept up for some years during the Seventies, by the Hong Kong Times existing copies of which are proof of its excellence for that period. The first issue appeared on May 3, 1873, the new location being 5 Duddell Street, and the publisher Mr. William Curtis. The competition was too great, however, and its demise occurred late in the Seventies: there do not appear to be any copies extant beyond 1876.
(To be continued)
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Mr. G. T. Yorke, of Jardines, sends an interesting contribution. He writes:
"With reference to 'Colonial's' article on early newspapers in the South China Morning Post, I should like to point out that Jardine, Matheson & Co. possess 52 numbers of the Canton Register for the year 1839. At that time it was a weekly paper edited by John Slade. The Canton offices in the Creek Hong were rented from Jardine, Matheson & Co., whilst the Macao offices were in the Rua do Hospital. Slade also issued weekly the 'Canton General Price Current Mercantile Register & Shipping List,' of which a complete set for the year 1839 is preserved by Jardine, Matheson & Co., an annual list of 'ships arriving in and sailing from China with the names of consignees and commanders,' the Anglo-Chinese Kalendar, and two books, namely 'The lasting resentment of Miss Keaou Lwan Wang, a Chinese tale founded on fact and translated from the original by Sloth' and 'A narrative of the late proceedings and events in China' which was published in 1839. The only complete copy of which I know is in my possession.
"The editor of the Canton Register carried on in 1839 a printed controversy with the editor of the Canton Press. Unfortunately no copies of the Canton Press have survived whilst the beginning and subsequent history of that paper are unknown."
When the Hong Kong Times ceased publication towards the close of the Seventies, there were only two daily papers left in the Colony, one morning and one evening. This continued until 1881, when the Hong Kong Telegraph made its appearance as an afternoon daily. The career of its founder Mr. Robert Fraser Smith, has already been dealt with in these historical articles (see 22-1-34). He was a fearless critic, and while (as in the case of other local editors in the old days) some of his comments led to imprisonment, he made his paper an organ of more than ordinary value to the public, and never failed to champion causes which he considered
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