the Editor of the Dean Str,—Many and strictures p what law or by wh authority these boats are. taxed. It nay be necessary to oblige these craft to bear a share of the expenses of policing and regulating the traffic, and it may be expedient in the general interests of the Settlement that they should be brought under foreign surveillance, rather than remain, s hitherto, amenable to the City authorities. But, as far as positive rights are concerned, I imagine that the Council has no more title to exact a copper cash from the proprietora of these boats, than the Taotai has to tax foreigners residing in this port; whilst, on the other hand, the Chinese authorities 6 possess distinct claims upon them as their own subjects, and if they choose to enforce these claims by means of processes which their own laws and customs warrant, we have certainly no call to complain. Indeed, the hardship is the greater upon these poor boat people, if we, knowing their position quoad their own authorities, and the consequences of that position, in the shape of local taxes which they have to bear, impose upon them an additional burden for our own fiscal requirements, The fact is, that the same want of foresight and intelligence is characterising our Manieipel proceedings, which has always marked foreign policy in this country, all matters where Chinese interests are concerned. When Hongkong was appro-printed by the British Crown, no effort was made to suit our administration to the character and requirements of the large Chinese -population which was attracted to the Colony, neither were any steps taken to enter into a reciprocity convention with the authorities of the mainland: and the consequences are only too patent in the present low condition of Chine: morality in the island, and in the voxatious obstructions by which the trade of the place is now trammelled and hemmed in at the instance of the Canton Government. Then, again, take the transit duty arrangement, aa laid down in the Tariff Rules of the British Treaty, It was thought to be the best that could be effected under the circumstances, but experience sho7s that Imperial interests have promoted to the prejudice of Provii and a deadlock has been brought shoal the effective removal of which is a problem that is likely to puzzle our Peking diplomatists for some time to come. And to descend from great things to little, here is our Model Settlement of Shanghai, in which our Municipality is presumed to be the only taxing power, both as regards Foreigners and Chinese, and yet the Chinese authorities persistently prosecute their supposed claims upon their own people, out the slightest reference to our rights, even although some of these may have been directly or tacitly acknowledged.
To my mind, there is but one way of utting an end to this anomalous and ties from receiving what, after all, they have a coleurable right to consider their own due, until it can be established to their satisfaction that it is not properly theirs.
Tam, Dear Sir, Yours faithfully, "New Carmay."
Shanghai, 14th Aug., 1874.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.