Proprts at a distance may not always able to judge fairly.on the d".ils any matter which interests us hei but when jarly of our local subjects attract the attention of the Home papers, it must be clear that those subjects appear to the editors to possess certain amount of interest, and.in the pose of those Home papers are devoted to Eastern affairs, it la instructive to watch what items of our Shanghai news are picked out.as worthy of comment, Quite lately some remarks have appeared in London papers relating tovour Police Gratuity Fund, and we have it forcibly brought to our notice that-of all the matters relating to Shanghai that, is the one: which for ithe moment presents most points of bl matter of news or indirectly ap bearing upon the question of the good government of the Settlement.
A few: months ago scarcely half-a-dozen people outside of the. Council or the police force thought anything of this matter, and now that the question. has; boon investigated it la so far patisfaptory to learn that there is nothing radically wrong, and that there are claims against the, Copnoi}, there is money ready to meet them. A certain amount of laxity ip, however, evident when the matter is solosely looked into, and though we do nob say that a definite settlement of ithe.subject isiono.of the mostipressing queatious for consideration by the pare it appears to us that while the details are fresh in their minds ithe Coupoil should see that the whole imptter \is cleared up, so that on the next gonyenient opportunity the Rate-; payors may be clearly informed as to show. it stands. It is quite possible, coe intentionally or unintentionally, to: zmako bargains whioh.shall bear hardly -on one party, and it is still -maore easy to make ba: in which one of -the. parties can point out sepparent-inequalities. If a-man comes out here under an engagement to serve for $2,000 a: year, and another comes out to serve for £4008 year, to be paid in dollars at the exchange of four shillings, per dollar, it is clear-that the two agreements are identical, and -80 no doubt the two.employés would think~ if they happened to. compare notes..on the way out; yet it is quite possible that.before long the second man would maintain that his agreement was unfair, and if he demanded payment. at the exchange of the day some people mount ie, while they would scout the idea of the first man claiming an increase because he thought when he, signed that a dollar was worth four and would tell him it was is business to heve found out.carlier, Something of this sort has happened in the case of the Police. From the report of the sub-committee, it is quite impossible to tell whether the reserve -|fand—has-boon—accumulated Gut of deductions from the pay of the police force or not. From the extract from Mr.
Penfold's report, it appears that at some date, farther back than he can remem-bor, each member of the force began to receive Tle, 5 per mouth in addition to his pay in consequence of the dearness of provisions, but at the end of 1864 it was determined to discon. tinue this extra allowance, and use it to form a reserve fand to meet gratuities. Now where temporary allowances are made which are: likely'to be with-of importance that during are paid they should be kept quite distinct from ordinary pay, but ea far from this having been done we gather from the report that nob only during the time of their payment, but for some seventeen years after their abolition, these allowances of Tls,5 per man have been included in the.ordinary monthly pay-sheets, and the Police Gratuity Fand has been acoumalated out of money voted annually for the pay of the police. We do not suppose that the Council looked upon this fund as 80 constituted, bat we would not be surprised to find that ench was the impression among some of the police foree;.aud if this were. Municipality in England we should -not be surprised to find that income-tax was demanded by the Government on the whole-pay,, including the Tls. 5. The claim which members of the force upon fund formed from deductions from. their pay is different from the claim they have for gratuities. It would have given the publio a better idea.of judging of the matter if a specimen monthly pay-sheet shad been published, showing the exact heading under which the.payment to the Gratuity Fand was included; also the form of receipt signed, by each constable. The amount of public money that is dealt with by the Council is top large to allow of any laxity in keeping accounts, and it is clearly an unpleasant position for the community to find iteolf placed in when it is, tald that, three of its officers the whole commerce.of Shanghai, 8 moral claim for over Tls. 9,000. Wo do not mean to sey anything against the claim, which appears to.us to be well founded, but if it existe it ought.to stand on @ different footing, the question of @ member the service. This isa most important matter to the. police and ifo.the public. feel a certain delicacy in discussing the relations between the exeontivegoverning body of the Settlement aud'some of their employes, bat it la clear that if anything has boon shown.to be wrong it should be eet right as speedily as possible. The Police of this: place are fairly effective, and most People ie root of the matter, but it is of sufficient importance.to. causo.a.vast.amount.of at some future time if left wre of itself.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.