Tue Municipal Council have, we think, take the proper view of the matter in their recent letter to the 'I'reaty Consuls, regarding the Wharfage Dues and the Taotai's commutation. OF course, knowing the obstructive temper of the Chinese authorities at the port, which has rather increased than diminished within the laet six months, it may be anticipated that opposition will be offered to their proposition. The more so, as the carrying of it out would doubtless re-act on many of the other little points in dispute, where a similar practice of making a differential change according to the nationality, ig at present in vogue. But the argument of the Council is clear, and appar. ently unanswerable on any ground of abstract justice, The readiest method of raising a revenue for the support of the Municipal Government, and the one which has been found by experience to press with the least severity on individuals, is that of Wharfage Dues. No one paid except in proportion to his business, and as the accounts were kept on goods landed or shipped, there was no unnecessary enquiry into merely personal matters, Yet competition has become so keen that even the small amount charged, not exceeding one thousandth of the value of the goods forming the trade of the place, was found to press on some me dividuals; and a system of evading the collection by landing the good through Agents residing in the French Concession, where Wharfage Dues have not yet been charged, has sprung up. We are not going to argue on the morality of the plan, The fault is i system which encourages the possi of evading the tax with success The question really divides itself into two hei Firat, there are goods really belonging to Chinese, the Dues on which the Taotai's commutation does not nearly cover; and secondly there are goods really belonging to foreigners, which escape taxation by being passed through agents living on the French Concession, There is no just ground why Chinese should pay less than foreigners in proportion to their business. They enjoy the same protection, and have the same sanitary advantages, Their presence in the Settlements is a matter of their own convenience, and they have deliberately accepted it, and continue to do so in increasing numbers, There is, therefore, prima facie, no intrinsic bardship. The prihoiple of their liability has been long acknowledged by the hastily contrived, and unfortunately conceived device of obtaining a commutation from the Taotai; and it is only to make this liability press more evenly, and to avoid the abuses of the present system, that it is desired to collect the amounts at once. Probably even the Taotai will not deny that the collection of the Chinese Wharfage Dues can be more economically carried out by the Municipal Council, which already takes cognizance of the bulk of the trade of the port, than in the round. about manner adopted by Chinese officials to raise funds through irresponsible subordinates. We have often pointed out the disadvantages of the present system, even before its latest developement; and it only required this last device, of at once personating foreign ownership to escape one levy, and native agency to get out of another, to convince reasonable men that something was fundamentally wrong. It is curious that the reflection of errors committed in high quarters should penetrate into such smal) affairs og Municipal Dues; yet there is some little
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.