Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait341879roya).pdf/246

 5. These Papers had for some time a sister in Penang—the "Jawi Standard"—but it fared the same fate, and is no longer issued.

Strange to say, though the Tamil population in Penang is larger than that in Singapore, no Tamil Paper has as yet appeared.

6. The project has often been discussed of starting a Chinese newspaper, but it has never got any further. The Chinese of Singapore would not appear to have had sufficient interest in the matter, or perhaps sufficient knowledge of the Chinese language to induce the projectors to carry out their scheme.

7. The "Jawi Peranakkan" claims to be the first Malay newspaper ever published. It has now a circulation of some 250 copies, and appears to fulfill the useful function of a "highest reader in all the vernacular schools.

The price charged for it is 30 cents per copy, or $5 per annum: it appears every Monday, and is ably and punctually edited, having, with only one exception, been issued consistently on the day on which it professes to come out.

8. For the first year the proprietors adhered to the favourite manuscript writing and lithograph, but Malay type having been obtained from England, the paper has, for the last two years, been printed, and the style is clear and easy.

9. Its object is to give to its readers the latest news, both local and foreign, thought likely to prove interesting and it is amusing to mark how closely it follows the English Press in placing all procurable war news before the public.

10. In matters political it would seem to express opinions of its own, endeavouring at the same time to form those of its readers.

11. Towards Government its tone is not hostile, nor even critical; indeed in only one instance was anything like a burst of feeling given vent to: it was in the case of the recent "Holidays Ordinance," when not unnatural indignation was expressed at no holiday being alloted to the great Mahomedan festivals of "Ramzan Eed" or "Haji Eed.”