British North Borneo Herald
The British North Borneo Herald (BNBH) was a periodical magazine in British North Borneo that was published by the North Borneo government under various official names from 1883 to 1941.
history
After the entry into force of the Royal Charter for the North Borneo Chartered Company on November 1, 1881, the company was faced with the task of creating a functioning government structure for the acquired area. The resolutions passed by the Court of Directors , the company's highest governing body in London, required efficient dissemination both within the administrative units in North Borneo and among the company's shareholders and investors. For this reason, the first sixteen-page edition of the periodical The North Borneo Herald and Official Gazette was published on March 1, 1883 in Kudat - the then capital of North Borneo .
For the monthly edition of the newspaper as well as the printing at Dent Road No. 1 was written by Thomas J. Keaughran, a former reporter for the Straits Times . The unit price was 10 cents, the annual subscription 1.50 Straits dollars.
In 1883, Sandakan was elevated to the capital instead of Kudat, and "The Herald", as it was commonly known, also moved its place of publication there. WJ Rozario was responsible for editing and printing the Herald from 1885 to 1891.
From January 1, 1896, the Herald switched to a bi-weekly publication. The price per issue was still 10 cents, while the annual subscription including postal delivery had risen to 2.50 Straits dollars.
The last edition appeared in 1941. In January 1942 the invasion of the Japanese army began. On January 19, 1942, the Japanese marched into Sandakan and journalistic activities were prohibited with immediate effect. When the North Borneo Chartered Company went out of business on June 26, 1946, the fate of the Herald was sealed, while the Official Gazette continued to exist as the bulletin of the British colonial government until 1963.
Name changes
Although the Herald is usually cited as the British North Borneo Herald , its official name has undergone various minor name changes:
- British North Borneo Herald and Official Gazette
- British North Borneo Herald and Monthly Record (from January 1, 1892)
- The British North Borneo Herald And Fortnightly Record (from January 1, 1896)
Outsourcing of the legal texts
According to the intention of a government news agency, legal texts and ordinances were part of the Herald from the beginning . In the April 1, 1885 edition of the Herald, these were printed in a separate section "Gazette". An "Official Gazette" section was set up for the issues from May 1, 1885 to 1891. Thereafter, the British North Borneo Official Gazette continued as an independent government gazette .
Political orientation
As a government periodical , the Herald was not a neutral source as it did not publish any information that was in any way detrimental to the image of the North Borneo government (in the form of the Court of Directors in London) or the share price of the North Borneo Chartered Company. In none of the editions one finds comments on the trench warfare between William Clarke Cowie and the governors Hugh Charles Clifford and Ernest Woodford Birch , which are extremely popular in North Borneo , which in both cases led to the resignation of the governor. Nor were the shortcomings of the North Borneo Railway , the catastrophic misjudgment of the manganese deposits at Marudu Bay in 1907, or the major fire that destroyed the British Borneo Timber sawmill in 1934 , mentioned.
The Herald for reference
Archive editions of the Herald can now be found in various libraries in Asia and Europe. Among the periodicals, the Herald, together with The Straits Times and The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884-1942), is the most important source of knowledge for historical research on North Borneo and the North Borneo Chartered Company.
Comprehensive original editions of the Herald can be found e.g. B. in the Sabah State Archives and in the State Library of Singapore.
In contrast to the other magazines, the British North Borneo Herald is not yet publicly digitally indexed.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The Straits Times: The North Borneo Herald ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , May 1, 1883 edition, p. 3; Accessed March 15, 2013.
- ↑ Straits Times Weekly Issue, June 1, 1887, page 2 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Accessed March 16, 2013.
- ↑ a b c The North Borneo herald and official gazette on worldcat.org; Accessed March 15, 2013.
- ^ The British North Borneo herald, and official gazette on worldcat.org; Accessed March 15, 2013.
- ↑ Sabah State Archives: Senarai Surat Khabar ; Accessed March 16, 2013.
Remarks
- ↑ TJ Keaughran was previously Superintendent in the Straits Settlement Printing House in Singapore. Source: Straits Observer (Singapore) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , April 29, 1875, p. 14.
- ↑ Starting with the band. 10, No. 1 (January 1, 1892) to volume. 13, No. 7 (July 1, 1895).