Tax improvement of the Settlement is process which goes on from year to your, more or less quickly, ncoording as circumstances permit. It is not often that retrogression is observable, or that an innovation good and desirable in itself is introduced and subsequently abandoned, It is with pleasure that we notice the regular efforts that are made by successive Qounoils to widen the streets and regulate the traffic, and there are fow who will not agree with ug that every oont expended on the former object is thoroughly well I out, One of the most important factors in municipal hygienics is plenty of open space. Streets cannot be too wide, and squares cannot be too uummerous, for health, This is of even gr consequence when, as in Shangh Inrge ® majority of the ho line the streets are in the: clean, We now refer primarily to the countless tenements inhabited by Chinese; and these, it must be remem-bored, inolade not a few Buropean-built houses, which of Into years have boon routed to a considerable extent by native shopkeepers and merchants, Tt is proverbially difficult, too, for even foreign householders to maintain per-feot cleanliness in the book parts of their own premises, where the boys, cooks, and coolies herd together like rabbits, and, unless diligently looked after, indulge in those shiftless and slovenly habits which result in a rapid accumulation of dirt, That the afreets, therefore, should be kept fresh and clean, and widened as much as the tion upon the number of jinricshiis that now ply for hire. When we think of the legions of these vehicles that now throng the streets, the inelicienoy of many of the coolies who drag them, the crazy overloaded rattletraps from Maloo and: other nati the private Inndaus, all racing hither and thither in every direction well nigh from morning till" night, cooms little lees than u ery great, atid the riske to everybody are serious, Surely somé'mensures should be adopted to relieve the traffic, It would, we think, be great blessing to the Settlement if the namber of jinrioshas were curtailed, and more care were taken with regard to the coolies who pull them, 'A considerable portion of these are puny boys, unable to go beyond a feeble trot, whose distressful panting and puffing show only too clearly how utterly unfit they are for their work, We do not hesitate to say that one-Lalf of the jiuricsbas that now ply for hire should be withdrawn: that the tax on the disreputable, dirty Maloo traps which now disfigure the Bubbling. well Road should be ivoreased: and that, to supply the place of both, encouragement should be given to any enterprising and respectable Chinese who would attempt to introduce a publio service of cabs, At pri for those who do not keep a private carriage, there is no available conveyance but a hired brougham—which costs the exorbitant sum of three dollars an even-almost most ingeniously cot trived for wetting the pass—allowing the rain to beat saturate his knees and feet, and pour copiously down the back of his neck. Tui ry much improved vehicle, with a door and windom, is placed on the streets, cabs of some sort Will prove a necessity, and, we should think, be very extensively used. The ricélia as it exists to-day is only useable in fine weather; it is Worse than useless in the rain, and must either be improved or superseded. There is one more matter to which we may refer, as it is very intimately connected with the question of street-trafic, We mean the eleotrio light. Will the Electric Ca., get its vote next year? If it is so fortauate, it will be go in the face of much fiercer opposition than it had to contend against last Marob, When the eleotiic light is good it is very good, atid improves the appearance of a town to an almost incalculable extent. No one objection, and brought to the by the Council opponerite of the Oomipany when time comes to decide upon the' renewal or non-renewal of the present cor and unless the duplicate act ances of which we reasonable guaran gainist fah lure, it'does not require much fore sight to predict the result, But thi are two points which must not be left out of o the electric light yet in'its infancy all over the world, ud itprovemetite may be expected whicl ill, in course of time, render it quit as gas, Seeing, therefore, that have the apparatus al and everything in we ig order, would it not'be a thousadi pities to reliciquish the if the present ange enter ifthe fate of another will spring up? Would not its extinction be running too great a isk, and throwing away a future ade our hand?' Secondly, if we relinquish the electric light, we shall have only ges to fall back upon; and the gas is sometimes abominably bad. It is well in the publio interest that it should hi J, and that, we believe, is the opinion of all who do not hold gas shares, and also of a few who do, lettre has boon' published fFoin the Gounall Since this article was {n type, to the Electric Ao. threatening to cancel the contract on the' ground of imperfect fulfilment, The Company offers, in reply, to sell the entire plant to. the Municipality for a fraction of its original edat.—Ep,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.