Friday Nov 15, 2024
Friday Nov 15, 2024
Saturday, 31 May 2014 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
It was on 4 February 1834 that the ‘Observer’ was born as ‘The Observer and Commercial Advertiser’. The merchants of Colombo started it under the editorship in turn by George Winter and E.J. Darley. A year later Dr. Christopher Elliot, who resigned from the post of Assistant Colonial Surgeon in Badulla, became Editor and the name changed to ‘The Colombo Observer’. In 1867 the name was changed to ‘The Ceylon Observer’.
In 1920 the paper was acquired by a limited liability company floated by the European Association of Ceylon and three years later it was bought by D.R. Wijewardene and later incorporated in the Associated Newspaper of Ceylon Ltd., of which he was Chairman and Managing Director.
Introducing the newspaper to the public, it said: “The first number is furnished gratis, inviting those who are inclined to favour a free press to become subscribers… at 12 shillings a quarter. We appear before a public, fully aware of the difficulties we have to encounter, and from whom we hope for every indulgence, encouragement and support…”
The paper attacked Governor Sir Wilmot Horton’s Government so relentlessly that in May 1837 the ‘Ceylon Chronicle’ appeared privately aided by the Governor and owned by “a Committee of Gentlemen,” meaning the Ceylon Civil Service comprising of British bureaucrats.
A well-illustrated, attractive Centenary Supplement of the ‘Observer’ issued in February 1934 (it’s among my library ‘treasures’) captures the progress in the country over a period of 100 years. Apart from an article by the Editor (his name is not given) titled ‘History of a Hundred Years,’ there isn’t any other article in the supplement, but a wealth of information is presented through full page picture pages.
The article begins with a quote by Thomas Hardy with the title ‘The Aged Newspaper Soliloquises’: “Yes, yes: I am old. In me appears
The history of a hundred years”
It then outlines the global changes over the 100 years: “The ‘Observer’ in the long period of its growth from a small but potent four-pages bi-weekly sheet to the full-fledged daily paper modelled on the best of England’s popular national journals, has seen the birth of steam transport, of the telegraph, the telephone, motoring, aviation and radio communication, the quickened pace of the pulse of time, the annihilation of distance, the development of electricity, the mechanised reproduction of music and the drama; the immense expansion of the field of human knowledge, the extension and threatened eclipse of democracy, and the widening of the bounds of the freedom in many lands.”
What was Ceylon like at the time the paper was started? “For one thing the land was thinly peopled. Its population, as far as could be reckoned in those pre-Census days, numbered less than one and a quarter millions. Of this number, Old Colombo’s share was only some 30,000. We are told there were not more than 20,000 tiled houses throughout the whole island in the decade before the ‘Observer’ saw the light. At the same date, Ceylon had a few roads to boast of, beyond sand and gravel tracks. Then came Governor Barnes (1824-31) with his road-building zeal, which made vast changes in the surface of the island’s map. And so, a hundred years ago, every town of importance was approached by a carriage road, while there was a first-rate macadamised highway from Colombo to Kandy, passing over a bridge of boats across the Kelani River. On this road a mail coach (the first of its kind in Asia) ran between Colombo and Kandy at the time of the Observer’s birth, and continued to do so for over three decades until the railway superseded it.”
The article then sums up the progress achieved over a century decade by decade.
Among the pictures are one coloured plate of the Galle Face esplanade – a painting by Capt. Deschamps – and five tinted plates. Sketches by J.L.K. Van Dort, a well-known artist, titled ‘How they travelled,’ ‘Ceylon types of the sixties’ and ‘Court oddities of old’ are fascinating. Photographs of businessmen, scholars, educationists and churchmen, notable women and chief justices form a galaxy of personalities of the era. All key events of the century have also been covered with photographs and descriptions.
Among the advertisements in the supplement are several products still in the market. These include Lux soap (a colour advertisement carrying the slogan ‘Its fragrant perfume appeals to everybody’), Dunlop tyres, Capstan cigarettes and White Horse whiskey. A number of hotels and companies have also placed full page advertisements.
The Ceylon Government Railway advertising itself as the ‘Premier transport service in the Island’ gives some interesting statistics. Capital value: Rs. 226,379,400; Length of lines: 951 miles; Total employed: 16,330. Passenger fares as well as those for parcels, luggage and other goods are detailed out.
A notable feature is the absence of a single name of the staff members – quite a contrast to what we observe now in newspapers.
