At the conclusion of the above annual general meeting of Ratepayers, a special meeting of Ratepayers was held for the purpose of receiving and considering the Report of the Committ of the Land Regulations, with the Revised Regulations and By-Is Mr. Lirrtz, the Chairman of the Municipal Council, announced that there was a quorum present, and on his motion Dr. Focke was formally elected to preside, and Mr. J. A. Pond was appointed Secretary of the meeting.
Mr. Lrrrie than said—At the special meeting of the Ratepayers held on the 12th November, 1879, I had the honour to propose the appointment of a Committee to revise the Land Regulations. In accordance with the resolution that was then the Committee that was-appointed ad given in their report together with a draft of the proposed Municipal Regulations and By-laws, and the present meeting of Ratepayers has been called to receive the report of the Committee. I will now call upon Mr. Forbes, the Chairman of the Committee, to propose a motion, which, I believe, will shorten our proceedings considerably.
Mr. F. B. Forszs—On behalf of the Committee for the Revision of the Land Regulations, I now beg to submit their report formally to you, and if the resolution which I intend to propose is passed, this meeting will only take a few minutes. T beg for your indulgence only for a few seconds. The. report has been in your hands now for some days, and I think it la only fair to the Committee to aay it is the result of 801 months' tolerably continuous work. There -is not a single clause which has been put in there that his not been amply discussed, and the whole has been critically revised a good many times,—the critical revision waa going on up to the last moment, and would have been going on now if we had not had to stop somewhere. It would be an advantage that our draft should receive the fullest discussion at the hands of the Ratepayers. The Committee have had some talk as to how this could be done with convenience. I find the-present Land Regulations were discussed at special meetings held at the British Consulate on the 12th, 18th, and 17th March 1866, and that the Regulations and By-laws were passed clause by claus ud when they got to the last clause, they agreed that they should put in another clause saying that land-renters and Rat payers meant the same thing except when-they meant something else; and then they went away fully satisfied that they had performed their duty. It does not seem that they ever submitted the entire draft to any critical revision, and that I suppose accounts for a great many doubts, obscurities and inconsistencies that are now complained of. The Committee think that in the present case it would be inconvenient and a mistake to do the work entirely at special meetings, as our present Land Regulations require certain formalities and a large quorum to make a resolution valid, and the rules of procedure would hamper us in discussing the matter. All those are difficulties it; would bebard to overcome, and the Committee think it would be better to have their draft dealt with in " manner analogous to a committee of the whole house" in parliamentary assemblies,—aome sort of an arrangement by which the articles could be discussed by the Ratepayers sitting in general committes, and any Rat who wished could come and discuss them, without any reference to a quorum, and no limitation of the number of times a person present might apeak, and they could go back and amend and re-a ud revise, ud finally a report could be to this special meeting adjourned for final decisi This will give an opportunity to have every: thing made as clear aa possible for the special meeting to deal with, My resolution therefore is this Resolution 1.—Tuat the Rate} General Commit until aken thereon by the Ratepayers, Mr. Warxewnton—I bog to second the motion, and in doing 0 I have nothing more to say than to take the opportunity of hoping that the Ratepayers will show their appreciation of the labours of the Committee by taking some interest in the matter, and the b they can do that is to attend greater the interest taken by ra the more likely are they to get Regulations passed in Peking. To me ulations are perfectly clear, but in apito of their clearness it is thought that they should be again revised, Mr. Lirrie—If the resolution which has been proposed is carried, T have to, nae that the Ratepayers will send in writing any objection or amendments they may have to any Regulation will simplify matters con. The Committee will then know what clauses are likely to be objected to, and we shall be able to get through the work much quicker.
The motion was then put to the meeting, and carried unanimously.
Mr. Lirmiz proposed the usual complimentary vote to Dr. Focke for presiding, and the Ratepayers dispersed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.