ENG-1950 — Page 158

VI.

THE PRESS.

The major event in Hong Kong's press world during 1950 was the sale, in the latter part of the year, by Newspaper Enterprises Ltd., publishers of the China Mail and the Sunday Herald, of their rights in these newspapers to the proprietors of the South China Morning Post. While the China Mail retained its separate identity, the Sunday Herald was merged into the Sunday edition of the Post under the composite title of Sunday Post-Herald.

Thus the three houses publishing competing English newspapers in the Colony were reduced to two, the Hong Kong (Tiger) Standard, founded in 1949 by Mr. Aw Boon Haw, O.B.E. who owns a group of English and Chinese newspapers throughout South-East Asia, being the sole rival to the South China Morning Post group.

Although a newcomer, the Hong Kong Standard has maintained an excellent news service and, by reason of going to press at a later hour than other Hong Kong newspapers, it is frequently able to provide news ahead of its rivals.

Another useful newcomer is the trade journal Daily Commodity Quotations published every weekday. This is a bilingual paper in English and Chinese, giving up-to-date trade news. It started publication in 1948.

The earliest English newspaper in the Colony, the Hong Kong Register, was a development of the Canton Register, which was printed in Canton from about 1827, and was the first English paper to be produced in the Far East. A daily edition was being produced in Hong Kong in 1850, but three years later publication ceased.

The oldest publication still being produced in Hong Kong is the Government Gazette, which was started in 1841 in Macao for publishing such proclamations as the British authorities desired to issue to their merchants. When Hong Kong was ceded, printing presses were imported into the new Colony and a weekly newspaper entitled The Friend of China and the Hong Kong Gazette began publication on 17th March 1842. In 1845 the newly-founded China Mail became the vehicle for Government notifications and the name Hong Kong Gazette was dropped by the Friend of China which carried on until 1860 before ceasing publication. The first separately issued Government Gazette appeared on 24th September 1853, and the first Chinese issue of the Gazette on 1st March 1862.

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