Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait341879roya).pdf/245

 THE VERNACULAR PRESS IN THE STRAITS.

(Read at a Meeting of the Society, held on the 30th Jan., 1880.)

No mention has as yet been made in the Society's journal of the recent appearance of a Vernacular Press in this Colony, and a brief notice of its rise and progress may have some interest.

2. Towards the end of the year 1876 an association, entitled the "Jawi Peranakkan" (Straits born), established a Malay printing office and began the publication of a weekly newspaper under that name.

3. Later on a Tamil Paper—the "Tangai Snahen"—was issued by the same publishers: it is a fortnightly periodical, has been in existence for some two years, and has now reached a circulation of about 150 copies.

4. About the same time efforts were made by others to produce both Malay and Tamil newspapers; a Tamil Paper having been brought out prior to the publication of the "Tangai Snahen," and two Malay Papers subsequently to that of the "Jawi Peranakkan," but these have, after a short run, died out, and the "Jawi Peranakkan" and the "Tangai Snahen" are, at the present moment, the sole representatives in Singapore of the two languages.

The names of the two Malay Papers referred to as having existed for a short period in Singapore were the "Peridaran Shamsu Walkamer" ("The Revolution of the Sun and the Moon"), and the "Bintang Barat" ("Western Star").