Old Hong Kong-3 — Page 166

NEWSPAPERS

Contd.

The Register appears to have lasted a good many years: we have few later records of it, but at the time Hong Kong became a British possession, it was still being published. The community here, however, were without a local journal until 1842.

It was just about a year after the cession of the island that Hong Kong had its own locally printed newspaper. This was the Friend of China and Hong Kong Gazette, first issued on March 24, 1842, under the editorship of the Rev. J. L. Schuck and Mr. James White. The latter subsequently went Home, and became a member of Parliament for Brighton. The paper was used (from its very first issue) as a vehicle for Government notifications. It was apparently only intended as a weekly; no dailies made their appearance until a considerable period afterwards.

The early compositors, it might be noted, were all Portuguese, and this was the case, certainly up to the Seventies. Chinese compositors were not employed until comparatively late in local printing history.

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In 1843 we still find references to the Canton Register which seems to have had an office in Hong Kong; and besides the Friend of China still going strong, another local journal had appeared, the Eastern Globe. This, however, must have been short-lived, for by 1845 we find no further trace of it and the Canton Register is also not mentioned. Presumably the latter became replaced by the Hong Kong Register, which was by then (1845) established in Queen's Road, with Mr. John Cairns as its proprietor.

The Friend of China was (in 1845) being produced in offices in Gough Street, a Mr. John Carr now being the proprietor. It no longer used the name Gazette, the official notifications having been given for publication that year (1845) to the newly-founded China Mail. The editorship passed to Mr. W. Tarrant (late of the local civil Service) in the Fifties, and he became an author on the side of the authorities. We find it said in 1854: "The only disturbing element was a local newspaper, the Friend of China, edited by a discharged Civil Servant, who generally criticised the Government and most public officers with some animus …..". This gentleman and his paper were still flourishing in 1859, but by 1860 the publication had come to an end.

The office of the Hong Kong Register by that time (1860) was located in Gage Street, a daily edition being produced, and Mr. Robert Strachan being editor and proprietor. The advent of the China Mail (1845) and Hong Kong Daily Press (1857) had, however, introduced a new measure of competition, and by the close of 1863 the Hong Kong Register had ceased to exist. The Hong Kong Times attempted to fill the gap, and was successful for a period; but as we shall see in a later article, this paper also passed out of existence.

We have already seen how Hong Kong was served in the way of newspapers in its earlier period: the Canton Register (established in 1827) circulated here at the time of founding the settlement; the Friend of China, the first of the locally-published periodicals, was actually established on March 17, 1842; in the second issue, on March 24, adopting the role of Hong Kong Government Gazette; then came the Eastern Globe, the Hong Kong Register, the China Mail, the Hong Kong Daily Press and the Hong Kong Times.