The following information about Fi-Pao was published in the Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser:
'This journal (which is very neatly printed in lithograph, by Whitehead and Company, on white foolscap, in columns of from sixteen to nineteen on each page) is intended by the enterprising and benevolent projectors to form an eligible medium of communication for advertisers in all matters affecting the Chinese in these colonies; their trade and commerce, and moral and social position. A wide circulation has been looked forward to, it being the especial desire of Mr. Mathew to make the journal a means of conveying full and reliable intelligence.
The subscription (6s. 6d. a quarter) seems too reasonable, considering the novelty and the difficulty of the undertaking. The advertisements intended for insertion in Chinese are, we observe, to be translated by the editor free of charge. One half of an inch is to contain fifty Chinese characters, and a quarter-ditto twenty. The publication of such a paper is indeed a novelty in the history of Australian journalism – an experiment for the benefit of our Mongolian population, the interest and importance of which it is scarcely possible to over-appreciate.'
Source: 'The "Fi-Pao," or Courier; A Chinese Weekly', Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 17 November 1868: 3.
