Ir is curious to observe how difficalt it is for writers at a distance to form from events 2 just conception of the points at issue, The Hongkong Duily Press has been venturing to comment on Municipal affairs in Shanghai, and hag fallen into one or two errors, which can only be attributed to an utter misunderstanding of facts, cor-tainly not justified by-ths distance of the Colony from Shanghai, It has, in fact, made the discovery that the Council has found out that the Land Regulations are illegal, that it has no power under them to levy taxes, and that all Municipal legislation is in a fair way of coming to a standstill. Now, we need scarcely say that the Land Regulations have from time to time been sanctioned by one and all of the Powers interested, and that in their origi they rest on a deliberate act of the Chinese Government. In fact, it is dificult to imagine any stronger foundation than that on which they rest. They were drawn up by the then Taotai of Shanghai, acting in obedience toan Imperial edict issued in conformity with the clauses of the I'reaty of Nanking, and unless we are to doubt t legality of that instrument, no question can be raised as to the validity of the Regulations as Regulations, Whether they are effective for the purposes intended, and whether their language is suffiviontly explicit is another question; and this is the position of affairs which has, at intervals, been discovered on the spot. It is abundantly clear that the right of regulating their internal affairs and of raising taxes was conferred on- the foreign residents in Shanghai by the first and subsequent Regulations, and it is likewise clear that that right was extended to the regulation of Chinese residents both in the amended Regula. tions and in the letter of authorization granted for the residence of natives within the limits, The real point at issue is not the validity of the Regulations, but the arrangement of details and the question how far those details are covered by the various lustraments from time to time promulgated.
That there exists some doubt as to these Jatter points is evident from the} preamble of the Amended Regulations, and likewise from the general desire of the community from time to time to have the Regulations far. ther amended. The Regulations, as at present existing, fail in two points, which are somewhat antagonistic. In some respects they enter too minutely into details of no practical importance, and in others they fail to specify with sufficient exactitude the personal powers conferred. It is worthy of note that the one levy most clearly defined, and the right to make which is above all cavil, is that which the Ratepayers have seen occasion recently to forego, namely, Wharfage Does on all goods entering or leaving the Settlements, There was much to be said in favour of those dues, and likewise there was a good deni to be said as to their being burdensome and partial. Circumstances occurred which made the Ratepayers at the last meeting conclude that their levy was inadvisable, but those cire stances were quite outside the questivr of validity. It was palpable that if they were levied in one Settlement and not levied in another, there would be a burden placed on the trade of the one Settlement from which the other was exempt. It was likewise palpable that the attempt to patch up this state of affairs in the lust code was awkward and difficult to enforce in practice, and meanwhile that the Set= tlements North of the Yang-king-pang were liable to find many of their most influential residents removed.
This, Lowever, was no more a proof of the want of validity of the Re-galatians, than it is a proof of the ineffective nature of English legislature. Many people find it convenient, for purposes of their own, to cross the Channel and take up a temporary residence on French or Belgian soil. The Regulations are attached to the locality, not the persons of the residents, and an individual has only to remove outside the limits to be free from all obligations to Municipal laws. In this respect Shanghai is only in the position of every Municipality. The residents of one side of a street occasionally find themselves exposed to burdens which their opposite neighbours escape, and in Shanghai it makes, in many respects, a difference whether a resident chooses to take up his abode at one side or other of a bridge—in Fogg's buildings, for instance, or in the corresponding block just across the Yang-king-pang, in the Maloo or at Lung-fei stables. It is doubtless advisable that from time to time all these circumstances should be taken into consideration by the residents; it also shows a healthy Manicipal organisation that they should from time to time be debated in the public medings of the Ratepayers. More than this, it is unfortunately the case that the Regulations, as they exist, jate archaic in structure and loose in Mauguage. The qualifications of voters Are hedged about with restrictions uuwise in themselves and unsuited to present conditions, so that in every respect it is advisable that some ebauge should take place and that doubts should be removed. In acknowledging this much, neither the Council nor the Ratepayers have over called. in question the validity of the Regulations themselves; but the validity of the Regulations and the means for carry ing them out are different things, and the latter certainly demand cousiderable reform and definition.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.