ENG-1948 — Page 192

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Chapter 6.

PRESS

The English-language newspapers at present published in Hong Kong are the "China Mail" (daily, excluding Sundays), the "Sunday Herald" which is published by the same company as the "China Mail"; the "South China Morning Post" (daily, including Sundays); and the "Hong Kong Telegraph", an afternoon paper published daily excluding Sundays. The last two papers are produced by one company. There are thirteen morning and eight afternoon papers, representing all shades of opinion, published daily in Chinese. Of these, the leading morning paper is the "Wah Kiu Yat Po" (##). This paper, the "Sing Tao Jih Pao" (H) and the "Kung Sheung Daily News" (I) form the backbone of the local vernacular press and it is in these three newspapers that Government notices are published.

During the year two Chinese papers, the "Wen Wei Pao” ( * * )and the "Ta Kung Pao", ( * ▲ ⇓)

*

大公報) both of Shanghai migrated to Hong Kong. Both these papers carried considerable weight in China, and their transfer to Hong Kong will undoubtedly add to the literary and reporting standard of the vernacular press.

The history of the English newspapers in Hong Kong is a long one, dating back to the earliest days of the Colony. The earliest paper "The Hong Kong Register" was a development of the "Canton Register" which was printed in Canton about 1827 and was the first English newspaper to be produced in the Far East. In 1850 a daily edition was being produced in Gage Street, but three years later publication ceased.

The oldest publication still being produced in Hong Kong is the Government Gazette whose history goes back to the earliest years of the Colony. The Gazette was started in 1841 in Macao for the purpose of publishing such proclamations as the British authorities desired to issue to their merchants who had left Canton. When

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