histr293.htm

History - 3

"The Prince of Wales Island Gazette" as History

by Geoff Wade

Part 1

ABSTRACT

Penang, the site of one of the earliest British settlements in the region, was also the home of the peninsula's first newspaper. The Prince of Wales Island Government Gazette (alternatively bearing, at various times, the masthead of The Government Gazette and the Prince of Wales Island Gazette) came into being in early 1806 and was published continually until the early 1830s. The period over which the newspaper was produced saw great change in Penang and more broadly in the peninsula, and the Gazette was one of the few public records of these changes. By providing a public medium for the exchange of information and ideas, the newspaper also brought new knowledge systems and new ways of knowing to a range of people within the society, albeit an elite, and thus must be seen as a major element in the introduction of modernity to the peninsula. The contents of this journal, and the interests and concerns expressed, provide us with a valuable source for examining various phenomena of early 19th century Malaya and particularly the important entrep t that was Penang. These range from the concerns of the East India Company administrators as seen through their public announcements and orders, the economic bases of the society observed through shipping news, price current lists and auctions of the revenue farms, and social clashes noted through the crime reports. As the British extended their activities in Southeast Asia, so do we observe an increase in the number of articles in the Gazette detailing the events affecting surrounding polities and societies, including, of course, the rise of Singapore after 1819. As Penang society grew and developed, the emergence of schools and societies is recorded, while the shipping and passenger lists which the journal included provide us with important sources on the emergence of the major merchant families in Penang and their links with Aceh, India, Malacca and China. This paper will examine various of these elements as they bear upon the early development of Penang and will also provide an index to the first several years of the newspaper to permit readers some idea of the range and importance of the Prince of Wales Island Government Gazette as a historical source.

*Introduction* THE WRITING OF HISTORY relies, above all else, on sources. Without sources, there can be no history. The first approximately 50 years of the British settlement on Penang, or Prince of Wales Island, from its establishment in 1786 to the abolition of the Penang Presidency in 1830, is a period marked by few historical studies.¹ This dearth is not really the result of a paucity of sources for such history, as a wide range of East India Company and Straits Settlements precursor correspondence does exist.² as do the Light letters being studied by Ulrich Kratz, and a wide range of maps, drawings and paintings dating from this period, as described by Lim Chong Keat.³ However, the inaccessibility of most of the texts (usually available only on microfilm), the difficulties of the script in which they are written, their (frequent) illegibility because of poor penmanship or poor quality of microfilming, and more particularly the dearth of indexes and other finding tools, mean that few studies have made extensive use of such materials. Most of these characteristics are also true of the early newspapers of the peninsula. There has thus been little use made of newspapers as sources for Penang, or more generally Malaysian, history. The major reason for this is that newspapers comprise vast runs of daily or weekly publications and the time needed to scan these for material on any particular topic is usually more than any single scholar can devote to the task. The lack of indexes and finding tools is thus a particular deficit when trying to make use of newspapers for historical research. However, newspapers of the peninsula contain a vast range of material useful for historians, anthropologists, economists, political scientists and a range of other scholars in a diverse number of spheres, and in order to make these materials more available to students and scholars, it is essential that more newspaper guides and indexes be compiled and made widely available.⁴ An initial step in such an undertaking is identifying and studying the newspapers themselves to determine how useful they might be for various areas of study. This paper aims at doing simply that, for a single newspaper. I intend to introduce the Prince Of Wales Island Gazette and make a few comments about the ways in which it might be used as a source for investigating the early history of Penang.
The Prince of Wales Island Gazette It is to Penang that the "honour" of being the site of the first newspaper published in Southeast Asia - the Prince of Wales Island Gazette -- belongs.⁵ Prior to the introduction of this new medium, news and information within the societies of the peninsula could only be distributed by word of mouth among individuals, through meetings or gatherings, or through manuscripts copied and recopied. The introduction of the newspaper provided a new means by which to distribute news, administrative orders and points of view. From 1786 to 1805, Prince of Wales Island was, at least in British eyes, a dependency of Bengal. For these first 20 years, despite its population growing to over 10,000, the settlement at Penang survived without a newspaper. On a Saturday in February 1806, however, there appeared on the streets of George Town the first edition of a journal, bearing on its masthead the name Government Gazette. No copies of the first three issues appear to have survived and it is only with Vol. 1, No 4, published on 22 March 1806, and comprising four pages, that today's library holdings begin. The newspaper was initially published every Saturday. The year 1806, in which the Government Gazette was initiated, was the year after `Prince of Wales Island became the fourth Presidency of British India⁶ and the battle of Trafalgar in Europe ended the French threat to British naval power. The Government Gazette, despite its name, was not a government publication, but a private initiative led by one Andrew Burchet Bone. Mr Bone had been a printer in India and brought his skills to Penang where he began to utilise his Indian experience.⁷ Mr Bone was also engaged in a business partnership with a Mr Court, and their firm "Court and Bone" was one of the major auctioneers in Penang in the first decades of the 19th century, frequently advertising on the front page of the Prince of Wales Island Government Gazette, the name which the newspaper adopted on 7 June 1806. This title was subsequently shortened to Prince of Wales Island Gazette in October 1807. Who owned the other share in the newspaper is not known-possibly Mr Court. A third share in the "Government Gazette Press" was offered publicly through the newspaper on 19 November 1808.⁸ Mr Bone also went on to print books and can be said to have been the first printer of consequence in the peninsula. It is claimed that he printed "The Malay Language" by John Shaw, which utilised Jawi script, in 1807.⁹ The first issues of the Gazette bore at the bottom of their final page the imprint: "Printed and Published by A.B. Bone, No. 68 Beach Street for himself and the other proprietors''. The publisher subsequently moved to No. 233 Beach Street, then again to 23 Bishop Street. He then transferred his business up the street to No. 6 Bishop Street, before eventually settling at No. 10 Farquhar Street. The successive moves are recorded at the base of the last page of the various issues of the Gazette, but the reasons for these frequent changes in place of business are not. There has not been sufficient research conducted on other businesses of the period to determine whether this was common practice. Mr Bone certainly had financial problems with the newspaper, and on several occasions, he resorted to obtaining loans from the government to fund continuing publication.¹⁰ The last issue produced by Mr Bone was Vol. 10, No. 477, dated 22 April 1815. Mr Bone died on the 26th day of that month. Our knowledge of Mr Bone's death comes only from the subsequent issue - a new Vol. I, No 1 (dated 20 May 1815), but still under the title of Prince of Wales Island Gazette. It and subsequent issues bore on their final page the notation "Printed for the proprietor by John Brasset." It is likely that the proprietor/publisher was a former partner of Mr Bone, but this remains an assumption rather than a conclusion. By 1819, the last page of each issue bore only "Printed for the proprietor".
Government Gazette The subsequent printer, one William Cox¹¹, printed his first issue on 5 February 1820 (Vol. VI, No. 6). He operated initially from Bishop Street, but subsequently shifted his operating premises to Beach Street, which in the early 19th century did indeed front the beach.¹² He also initiated two issues a week, one on Saturday and one on Wednesday. Prior to this, for its first 14 years of existence, the Prince of Wales Island Gazette had been a weekly publication, produced each Saturday. In 1820, Mr Cox obtained from the government a monthly stipend of 60 Spanish dollars, on condition that the Gazette print for all government notices.¹³ Business must have boomed for this newspaper as from 1 January 1821 (Vol. 7, No. 1), it was decided to bring out daily editions.¹⁴ This experiment lasted less than a year, and on 1 September (Vol. 7, No. 207) of that same year, the Gazette reverted to a biweekly schedule. This frequency remained in place until 1827, when it reverted to a weekly issue, published on a Saturday. In some ways, the publishing frequency of the Gazette under Mr Cox paralleled the commercial success and then decline of Penang during this period, growing from weekly, to bi-weekly and then daily frequency, before returning to biweekly and finally weekly issues. The last issue of the Prince of Wales Island Gazette, under this name, was that published by Mr Cox on Saturday 7 July 1827 (Vol. 13, No. 27). It was almost a year after this that the weekly newspaper was revived. On Saturday, 25 October 1828, a new publication bearing on its masthead The Government Gazette. Prince of Wales Island, Singapore and Malacca, (Vol. I, No. 1) was published on Prince of Wales Island. This was apparently a successor to the earlier publication, as evidenced by its name, and some of its masthead illustrations. However, this was obviously much more closely associated with the Government, as it was "Printed at the Government Press by J.J. Hippolyte". It was also a weekly, published on Saturdays. From 29 August 1829, the issues bore the words "Printed at the Government Press by E. De Oliveiro", and Mr De Oliveiro remained the printer until the last issue was published in January 1830. The reading public who purchased these newspapers would have comprised initially the officials and other administrators who oversaw the settlement of Prince of Wales Island for the British East India Company, the military establishment, members of the trading communities who made use of the facilities afforded by the port of Penang, and the captains and crews of visiting ships. The vast majority of readers would have had their origins outside of the peninsula and the contents of the Gazette reflected this readership. While most subscribers to the Gazette would likely have been British (there are however no figures to suggest how many subscribers the newspaper had), the fact that the newspaper reached many more persons than just the European population is evidenced by the fact that, at least by the 1820s, advertisements and notices in Jawi were included in the various issues. An advertisement from an issue in 1822 comprises a ship auction notice in both English and Jawi. Some government notifications, such as one relating to the illicit import of opium in 1830, were also published in Jawi.¹⁵ Apart from its intrinsic importance in having been the earliest regular publication in the peninsula, the various issues of the Gazette provide us with a wealth of information about the development of Penang over a period when it was one of the most important entrepots in Southeast Asia.¹⁶ The aim of this presentation is to provide some ideas as to how the Prince of Wales Island Gazette, Penang's (and Southeast Asia's) earliest newspaper, might be used as a source in the writing of various types of history. By providing some details of its contents and vignettes of materials which can be found within its pages, suggestions will be made as to how early Penang history might be expanded through exploration of areas little touched upon until now.
Contents of the Prince of Wales Island Gazette While it is impossible to describe any single format which continued throughout the life of the Gazette, it is possible to make a few generic comments about the publication's usual structure. The first page bore the masthead and usually a large number of advertisements. These ranged from auction notices for ships, houses or household items, to advertisements for sales of foodstuffs or ships stores. This is also where probate notices and sheriff's were published, notices about upcoming meetings, advertisements for plays, and notices of business partnerships being created or dissolved. Occasionally, new government regulations were also publicized on the front page. In the early issues, the "Government Gazette" part of the newspaper commenced at the bottom of the first page or on the second page. This included details of new personnel posted to the island from Bengal and elsewhere, details of the ships which had arrived or left, important public events past or upcoming, and court notices. The local news was then followed by extracts from various Indian newspapers from Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, the presidencies from where many of the administrators sent to Penang had come. These administrators were obviously concerned about what was happening in the other centres of the East India Company's realm, in places to which they would likely return. The lists of new civil, judicial and military appointments in Indian centres were reprinted in the P.o.W. Island Gazette, as were details of births, deaths and marriages from the other Indian presidencies. News from Europe was also important for readers of the Gazette, even if it arrived up to six months after the event. News from London took precedence, but there were also regular accounts from Paris, Berlin, Vienna and The Hague. Major diplomatic events, such as Napoleon's visit to Britain in 1815, and the negotiations between Britain and Holland which led up to the signing of the Treaty of London in 1824, which basically split spheres of influence in the Malay world between the British and the Dutch, were also staple fare. But it was not only political news from abroad that was presented to Gazette readers. The latest scientific investigations in Europe were also reported-as were the opening of Egyptian mummies, the discovery of the skeleton of a mammoth near London, and various experiments in "craniology'' and on the compressibility of water. Proof of the existence of mermaids was reported in the Gazette of 10 April 1822.
Other items which form staple contents of modern newspapers, such as weather reports, also began to appear in the POW Island Gazette. The Malacca temperatures and weather details for the month of June 1815 and the Penang temperatures for part of July 1815 (showing an average 10 degree difference between Government Hill temperatures and those in George Town) are given in an 1815 issue of the Gazette. The issue of 3 February 1816 gives Penang temperatures throughout the day for all days of the previous month. As the British expanded their knowledge and political power in Asia, so did grow the amount of material in the Gazette relating to the area which is now known as Southeast Asia. The situation in various sultanates of the peninsula was reported, albeit infrequently. We read in 1821, for example, of the sudden increase in the price of rice in the Penang markets, and how this had resulted from Siamese attack on the territories of the "Raja of Kedah".¹⁷ The Dutch attack on Palembang in 1819 is detailed in the Gazette along with a map.¹⁸ The British attack on and occupation of southern Burma in 1824, the British occupation of Java, as well as the events and trade in Manila and Canton are further examples of regional topics carried in the pages of the Gazette. Perhaps one of the most important events for the future of Penang (of course, we do have the benefit of hindsight) was recorded in the issue of 7 August 1819. It read, in part, "The Dutch have hoisted their flag on the Rajah Mooda's fort at Rhio, and almost all the inhabitants have, in consequence, left it to reside under Major Farquhar at Sincapore--the Rajah Mooda himself has retired to Lingin." The burgeoning of Penang's major future competitor had begun.¹⁹ By the mid-1820s, Singapore was challenging Penang as the major trade and passenger collection and transhipment centre of the peninsula, and in 1826, the Straits Settlements (comprising Penang, Singapore and Malacca) were created by placing Singapore and Malacca under the administration of Penang. Poetry, some obviously derived from abroad and some written locally, appeared in issues from the earliest date, as did some humour items, early book reviews, stories of huge crocodiles caught in Tanjong Tokong and other miscellaneous entertainment and unusual items. Accounts of murder cases, as today, obviously held the attention of readers, and in 1827, we read a long account of a milk seller named Kairasob, who had claimed to know how to turn base metals into gold. His murder by one of his disappointed students, who then left a detailed account of his discontent on the corpse, obviously appealed to the more morbid sentiments of the newspaper-reading citizenry, a characteristic which the press continues to actively exploit today. However, it is to the Gazette items relating to Penang that we now turn our attention, so that some suggestions can be made as to which areas they might be useful as historical sources.
Part 2	Part 3
from a paper read at The Penang Story Conference by Geoff Wade University of Hong Kong Email: gwade@hkucc.hku.hk

ENDNOTES 1. There are, of course, a number of notable exceptions, including L.A. Mills’ British Malaya 1824-67, Journal of the Malayan Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XXXXIII, Pt 3, 1960; K.C. Tregonning’s The British in Malaya: The First Forty Years 1786-1826, Tucson, Association of Asian Studies, 1965; Wong Lin Ken’s “The Revenue Farms of Prince of Wales Island 1805-30”, in Journal of the South Seas Society, 1964-65; Rollin Bonney’s Kedah 1771-1821: The Search for Security and Independence, Kuala Lumpur, Oxford University Press, 1971; and Lee Kam Hing’s The Sultanate of Aceh: Relations with the British 1760-1824, Kuala Lumpur, Oxford University Press, 1995. 2. Much of the correspondence relevant to the study of this first half century of the British settlement at Prince of Wales Island is detailed on pp. 327-331 of C. Mary Turnbull’s “Bibliography of writings in English on British Malaya 1786-1867”, Journal of the Malayan Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XXXXIII, Pt 3, 1960. 3. Lim Chong Keat, Penang Views 1770-1860, Singapore, Summer Times Publishing, 1986. The first 120 pages of this volume are devoted to Penang views prior to 1830. 4. There are available very useful indexes for official papers and correspondence, including Paul Kratoska’s Index to British Colonial Office files pertaining to British Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Arkib Negara Malaysia, 1990. However, these are of use only for materials dating from 1838. The tools for using Malayan newspapers are much more limited. Perhaps the most useful guide to materials contained within early Malayan newspapers that exists so far is Ron Hill’s “Materials for Historical Geography and Economic History of Southeast Asia in Nineteenth Century Malayan Newspapers”, JMBRAS, Vol. 44:2 (1971) pp. 151-198. Materials relating to Penang and Province Wellesley are found on pp. 173-75. 5. For some background to the history of the press in the Malay peninsula, see: C.A. Gibson-Hill, “The Singapore Chronicle, 1824-37”, JMBRAS 26:1 (1953) pp. 175-99; Ampalavanar Kanayson, “The newspapers of Singapore, 1824-1914”, Academic exercise. Department of History, University Malaya, 1956; Peter Laurie Burns, “The English language newspapers of Singapore, 1915-1951”, Academic exercise. Department of History, University Malaya, 1957; Chen Mong Hock, The early Chinese newspapers of Singapore, 1881-1912, Singapore, University of Malaya Press, 1967; P. Lim Pui Huen, “A survey of newspapers published in the Malaysian area with a union list of local holdings”, Kuala Lumpur : International Conference on Asian History. University of Malaya 1968, Singapore National Library, “Holdings on microfilms: Singapore & Malaysian newspapers in English”, Singapore, National Library, 1972; C.M. Turnbull, Dateline Singapore : 150 years of the Straits Times, Singapore, Times Editions for Singapore Press Holdings, c. 1995; and Mohd. Safar Hasim, Akhbar dan Kuasa: Perkembangan Sistem Akhbar di Malaysia Sejak 1806, Kuala Lumpur, Penerbit Universiti Malaya, 1996. 6. Allowing it to deal in most matters directly with London. This decision was, according to Tregonning, an Admiralty one, premised on the island becoming a naval base. See The British in Malaya 1786-1826, p. 64. Mills (British Malaya 1824-67, p. 101) refers to the decision as being based on “the extravagant hopes which were entertained for the future of Penang.” 7. The first newspaper to be published in the Indian sub-continent was Hickey’s Bengal Gazette, first published in January 1780 in Calcutta. 8. Prince of Wales Island Gazette, 19 November 1808 (Vol. 3. No. 143). 9. This information on Shaw’s book is taken from Md. Sidin Ahmad Ishak, Penerbitan Dan Percetakan Buku Melayu 1807 – 1960, Kuala Lumpur, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1998, and I have no further information on this claim. Cecil K. Byrd’s Early Printing in the Straits Settlements 1806-1858 (Singapore National Library 1970) makes no mention of this book. I would appreciate confirmation or otherwise of its existence from readers. 10. For details of the loans and some other background information on Mr Bone, see Cecil K. Byrd, Early Printing in the Straits Settlements 1806-1858 (Singapore National Library, 1970), p. 3. 11. Mr Cox was also an auctioneer and merchant in wines, as had been Mr Bone. William Cox was also to print much for the Prince of Wales Government, including John Anderson’s Political and commercial considerations relative to the Malayan peninsula, and the British settlements in the Straits of Malacca, in 1824. 12. Beach Street was obviously one of the most sought after addresses in early Penang. In the Regulations governing the assessment of rates on houses in 1826, the rates for No 1-79 Beach Street were 20 Spanish dollars for every 20 feet, compared to 5 dollars in Bishop Street and in Pinang Road. See Penang Past and Present 1786-1963, p. 109. 13. Cecil K. Byrd, Early Printing in the Straits Settlements, p. 3. 14. This may also have been related to the emergence of Singapore as another Straits port a year or so earlier. 15. Government Gazette, 23 January 1830. 16. It appears that no-one has done a comparative study of the relative size and importance of the port of Penang vis-à-vis the other major ports in Southeast Asia –Batavia, Manila, Saigon and Bangkok -- in this first quarter of the 19th century. 17. POW Island Gazette, 21 November 1821. 18. POW Island Gazette, 5 February 1821. 19. An interesting account of the new settlement at Singapore is contained in the Gazette of 16 January 1822.

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