214
jubilee and doubting not that the world will still be able to find it "when a hundred years are gone."
were
+1
Notwithstanding the evidences of growing prosperity in the colony in 1867, it will be seen from extracts printed in another column of to- day's issue that men were writing bitterly about the "pestiferous island of Hongkong" this "oharnel house for troops and traders, and demanding its abandonment in favour of some more salubrious locality where the propects of commercial development
considered brighter. Possibly the founder of the Daily Press was content to think that if the community were to more in a body to Chusan or any other more favoured spot, as they had moved from Canton, the Daily Press could move with it, and for that reason per- haps did not include the word Hong- kong in the title. The name of the Colony was included in the title some years later when people had ceased to advocate abindonment and bad begun to recognise what British energy and enterprise were already making of a position found to be so admirably situated from the com- mercial as well as the strategical point of view.
We smile to-day at the size of the little sheet which represents the first daily newspaper published in the East, but those unacquainted with the history of the newspaper press will be not a little amused to know that the pioneer Londo 1 daily newspaper was of eren smaller dimensions very much smaller in fact, for it consisted of a single sheet of the size of half a sheet of foolscap with print on one side only, the other side being a blank left for the convenience of sending it by the post.’ But the London Daily Courant made its début one hundred and fifty years before the Hongkong Daily Press. There is, however, a curions resemblance between the first numbers of the two papers by reason of the fact that London in the early days of the Eighteenth Century was, as regards its com- munication with the world beyond, much in the sime state of isolation as Hoogkong was in 1817. The first London daily announced that it would (as its title showed) be published daily 'being designed to give all material news as 800 as every post arrives: and is confin'd to half the compass to save the publick at least half the impertinences of the ordinary newspapers." Those who peruse the intro. ductory article in the fac-simile of the first number of the Daily Press will note a similar declaration, except. that the "imper. tinences of the ordinary uowspapers are i o. plied rather than bluntly expressed. "Creative propensities," says the editorial, "we shall avoid, remedial suggestions eschew, and local abuses submit to We shall simply search for news, sift for intelligeuce, dig for facts etc." The temptation to rebel against local abuses, real and imaginary, and to suggest remedies proved, however, far too strong, and before it had been in existence a month, we find the Daily Press doing all that it had sworn not
to do.
66
The price of the paper, it will be noticed, was fixed at 823 per moith, but the dollar then was worth i. lld. At the present rate of exchange the charge of $3 a month made for the Daily Press to-day is just one half the price in sterling at which it sold when was
first started. Many factors have of course
contributed to this result, the chief being the growth in circulation and the increasing volume of advertising business as the Colony and neighbouring foreign settlements developed. In touching on this question of exchange we are reminded of the intimation at the bottom of column 2 on the front page of the first issue, vis. that "our quotations commencing from date will be given in a subsequent issu," and as the exchange and freight quotations of those "good old times' will possess an interest all their own to readers to-day We need make no excuse for reproducing them :-
*
EXCHANGE AND BULLION MARKHT.
Blank and first class Paper on London at six months'
sight, 48, 11fd.
Private Bills at six months sight, 5.-
On India, Blazik Bills at three days' sight, and Com
pany's accepted, on Calcutta 224, on Bombay 228. Sovereigns, $4,25,
Gold, per tael
Ballarat, $21.9.
Californian, $19 and $19.50.
Gold Leaf 100 touch, 22,65 and** No2.80.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
TONNAGE MARKET,
TO ENGLAND—24 4. for Tea; £5 58. for Silk. NEW YORK-$12 to $16 per ton of 40 feet. AUSTRALIA-£2 108, per ton of 50 feet or 20 cwt.
Emigrants $35 and $37 gross.
SAN FRANCISCO-39 and $10 per ton of 40 fent or 12
pioula. Emigrants $28 to 835 gross. HAVANA-From Swatow or Macao, $65 and $70 for
each coolie landed, SIAM AND BACK TO HONGKONG OR MACAO-75
cents per picul for Rice, or £4 to Great Britain. SHANGHAI-35 cents. per picul for Sugar, Rice and Copper Cash: $5 and 36 per ton of 40 feet for measurement goods,
New Patna Old Do Benares Malwa
OPIUM.
At Hongkong
$800 $775 3780 $100
At Macro. $785 and $790
$775 aud 780 5940 nom.
FIFTY YEARS OF PROGRESS.
The progress made in the last fifty years is strikingly illustrated by a comparison of the list of Shipping in Hongkong Harbour on October 1st, 1857 with the Shipping in port to-day. The first number of the Daly Press
contains a list of over one hundred and twenty hips then lying in the harbour, but not twenty of them bad a capacity exceeding 1000 tons and the largest of them was a P. & O. steamer of 125) tous. Steamers in those days were as rarely to be seen as the barque is to-day. In
that list of over one hundred and twenty ships there are only five steamships, and of these three belonged to the P. & O. Company. There is a large canvas in the City Hall Library painted by the late Mr. Baptista, a pupil of Chenery, which, gives an interesting view of Hongkong
Harbour in the days of the famous clippers.
12
THE OLD HONGS.
Looking down the list of "consignees or agents," we may note how few of the famous old hongs still survive. They may now be counted on the fingers of oue hand. We notice Jardine tha P. and O. Company, Messrs. Matheson & Co.. Siemsson & Co.. D. Sassoon, & Co., and we may also add D. Lapraik (now Douglas, Lipraik & Co). Gibb, Livingston & Co.. were also in existence, but the firm's name does not appear among the consiguees in the list to which we are referring. Besides these ther are one or two firms, who though no longer established in Hongkong still flourish in other porta
Holliday, Wise & Co. for example-but the great majority bave had their day and ceased to be. Of the famous old American firm of Russell &
in Co. so frequently mentioned the list Mesars. hew in Tomes & Co. are successors the old firm of Turner & Co. coased only a few years ago, the business being taken over by Messrs. (Hibb, Livingston & Co.; and the firm of Pustau & Co. continued in business in Canton until quite recently. The firm name of Dent & Co. is still to be seen in the list of firms at Macao and Shanghai.
of China-Messrs.
The advertisements in the first number of the
$1
Daily Press are no less interesting than the other features of the paper. The advertisements of Messrs. Wm. Pustau & Co., Agouts of the Austrian Lloyd Steam Navigation indioate the communications then existing with Europe. There was no Suez Canal, passengers and their baggage were transported overland from Suez to Alexandria. Between Trieste and Alexandria the Austrian Lloyd ran steamers "corresponding with the monthly and bi-monthly mails from India." The Directors of the Austrian Lloyd Co. also undertook to forward "per submarine to London or any other part of the Continent, telegraphic messages sent to them from China. A little further on in the first volume of the Daily Press we find other fi ́m names still identified with the Colony's trade and commerce. Lane, Craw. ford & Co., for example, figure very prominently throughout the volume as auctioneers, in which line of business, by the way, there seems to have been plenty of competition in the infancy of the Colony. Among the auctioneers establish ed here fifty years ago we note besides Line, Crawford & Co, McEwen & Co., G. Duddell, Thos. Huot & Co. and Y. J. Murrow. The latter was one of the founders of the Daily Press and the business remains the property of the surviving members of his family. The Queen's Road Dispensary, mentioned in one of the advertisements, was the business of Mr. A. 8. Watson.
Before we leave the advertisements we may mention for the information of the ladies that
|
|
|
[October 5, 1907.
Paris fashions were not ignored in Hongkong in 1857. The number of ladies resident in the Colony was probably very small at that time, and the Millinery establishments-of which there were at least two-had to interest the men in order to make a living. Hence we read fine that "Mrs. Lemon has just received a assortment of Felt Hats and Paris Boots of all sizes; now open for inspection at her millinery rooms," but Mrs. Marsh had "just received a splendid assortment of French Flowers, Steel Spring Petticoats, Ribbons of all descriptions, French Merinos, de Laines, Colored Cambrios, Blick and Colored Velvets, Plushes, Nspes &c,' while Mr. Marsh had received a consignment of 'gentlemen's ready-made clothing " & ".
The exigencies of spice oblige us to stop, and leave the reader to make his owa further re- flections on a perusal of the copy of the first number issued as a supplement to-day.
HONGKONG FIFTY YEARS AGO.
Mr. Wingrove Cooke, who came out as the Times correspondent to report the British Military operations which took place in China in 1857 and 1858, wrote :-
not are
European friends who advise us to "
My earliest impression is that our facetious go to Hngkong" have not an accurate kno vledge of the spot. A gentleman who should go to Hong. kong in the present state of affairs, although he may have his pocket full of dollars, is not nulikely to have to sleep upon the pavement of Queen's >treet, and. will be indebted to the protection of the Malay guard if his throat ba uot cut before the morning. It is a to vn of capital houses, but its powers of so- conmodation
capable of iade- finite expansion. The flight from Canton and other causes have filled it. General Garrett and his stiff who might reasonably have auti- cipated some preparations for their reception, found it convenient to sleep on board the steamer and were glad to shelter themselves where they might. The General on the day after his arrival with great difficulty got a room at an inn and his suite were happy to avail themselves of the hospitality of the Hongkong Club--an establishment to which we cannot be too grateful; and if there is any gratitude in Pall Mall the military clubs should be open to every member when he visits London, in requital of good offices rendered in
General utmost need. Ashburnham will have to take up his quarters iu a half-built storebouse and Lord Elgin will certainly be obliged to sleep in the harbour. For myself I think I ought to publicly return my thanks to Mr. Walker the agent of the Peninsular and Oriental, for it was by
time common expenditure
and of interest that he obtained for mo a single what a room at a price not much above
would cost in lodging in Regent Street the Londou season. In other respects Hong- kong is a place where a turkey and a ham costa £5 and where a dollar, whose par value is 44. 21, costs 58. in English bills or gold. It has some other peculiarities which strike a newcomer. If you dine with a merchant bere, you notice that your host takes leave of you at his outer door; he has a Malay soldier standing sentinel in the hall with a loaded musket. He explains to you that the house is so arrange that all these long-tailed domestics who waited at dinner are or can be shut off from that part of the house in which the Europeans sleep. If your host should secompany you a few steps towards your own domicile he is care- ful to buckle his revolver round his waist-sad say it is ine o'clock-be is uncomfortable if he goes ten paces without being challenged by an armed patrol.
Do
L
Another writer of a little later date expressed his views of the Colony in the following terms : A fatal and mos oostly mistake was made by those who managed the war and the treaty, in retaining the wretched, pestiferous island of Hongkong, and giving up the beautiful and salubrious island of Chusan.
Us
Hongkong, which already cost some millions of dollars and many hundreds of valuable liver, is an unproductive, mountanious, lumpish isle, only eight miles long, and, on an average, three miles broad. It is separated 'from the mainland of China only by a very
1
Page 10Page 11