A mooting of this Society was held in the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society on Monday evening (26th ult.). Me. B. Drow presided, and a Jarge number of member friends, including many ladies, were present.
Mr. W. Bricat moved—
"That in the interests of the community representatives of the local press should attend the general meetings of the Municipal Council, and publish reports of the proceedings."
He anid if \dge from the large the abject was one of considerable public interest; and he hoped that any short-com us an advocate would be adequately made his leading opponent had served on the Council, and who was; therefore familiar with the inner work of that august conclave; for that gentleman would thus be able to inform hi —and on that point he acknow! his complete iguorauce—of the reas which influenced the Municipal Council withholding from the press the right to report their proceedi The Mui cipal Council wns elected by the rate: payers, much in t parochial boards in England members constituted x bods ' entrusted with the several affaire pertaining to the settlem The mootings of this be good government of these cosmopolitan
were, as a rule, h ly; what tonk place at them he could not say—he had hot yet met anyone outside cil who could enlighten him on tie subject. All that they were permitted to know of the conduct of busine was comprised it a ai the Secretary of th fully stereotyped form, and published i week or more after the meeting to which it referred had been held. "One example was as good ws auother for the purpose of his arguments, and he would call their attention to the record of the meeting held on the 12th inet., which was reported in the newspapers Inst week. Such resumes we might expect to have been furnished to the Acta Dixrna of the Romans (and even in those times he doubted if auch a mighty task would take 'a week to perform); but they were totally ill-adapted to the requirements of the present day. Even the Council would appear to be ata loss to know how to describe weekly statements, for they did not hem by " general heading—they started with the words, "Ata general meeting." To his mind they were totally unlike the minutes of any other similar bodies he had sven. If described as minutes," it must be because the discover it. Themiuutes, of report, or atatement, or whatever they liked 10 call it, which he would teke asx sample, commenced e8 of the six gentlemen who were t ut the meeting. Thei public were formed that the minutes of the last meeting were read, confirmed, by the Eh and passed for publication; the cash statement was subtted, and cheques for various sims were followed " correspondence, reported at length, between the Chairman of the Council and the Doyen of the C ular Body; the no ication of the U, Consi appointment was restock had bes factory. Then followed that remarkable return, which he believed occupied the place of their old friend the fice-well returu—the table of the quantity of water in each fire-well. That had long since ceased to appear, and in its place they had the wonderful return of the living, dend, and nascent members of the ovine tribes to be found in the respect so-called dairies. Then they were informed that the meeting then adjourued—and any "and well it might." Thus they were led to suppose, for wil Uhat appeared to the contrary, tht their Conscript Fathers remained speechless throughout th ug. Now by asked in what other Lutive assembly or municipal body would auch a report be regarded we equate report of its meeting? To meetings of local bonrda, vestrive, boards of guardians and auch like in England the press were admitted, and reports were published at length; and he would ask if the business conducted at such meetings was not commensurate with that conducted at the mostings of Municipal Council of the lending moron tile city of the Far ast, Reporters wttended the meetings of public companies, and he did not know that much ham was done by the reports; and they atten ed the meetings of svcieties—for example, the Shanghai Literary and Debating Suciety. Why, then, should the local press be excluded from the Council Chamber? They had this anomaly—that while reporters could attend the meetings of public companies, societies and such like, hey were debarred from the privilege of attending the Muuicipsl Council meetings and reporting its proceedings. He would draw their ate tention for " moment to a rexolution whic. had been passed unanimously at n meeting of Katepayers in May, 1873, It wns follow "That the Municipal Council be instructed ty band to the local newspapers for publica tion a detailed copy of the minutes of each of ite general and committee meetings (personal matters only being withheld), within one week of every such meeting being hel.
would be inigresting to know where were the "detailed" reports mentioned in the resolution; where, too, wore the reports of committee 1 ings, lsu mentioned He hud compared the Municipal Council mivetinge to the meetings of lvonl public meetings and societies, and he would now do their veal honour of compares with the Br Parliament, They would remember that wi any yours ayo there was " very rent onto cry ayainst the admission of newspaper reporters to the Bonne of Commons, All sorts of excises were invented to resist their presence in that sacred assembly, and it was not until 1729 that reporters were allowed to report parliamentary proceedings, Well, the press had coutinited to report parlia= mentary proceedings, and now the outery was just the reverse—not that the press should be excluded, but that the reports of parliamentary proceedings were altogether we brief. ~All that he had read with regard to the rise wud progress of the Knglish press tended to show that the eas the we tion of the press was restrained, the better and freer the government, mud the greater the public interest in it, Th of the press to the Council 1 we expose shady trans-and would eunble the ratepayers to know what were the opinions of the councillors—why suck and such " piece vf land was bought aid snather piece was uvt—why such nud such a course of action was taken in one case and avoided in another. We not only wanted good men to represent us; but.we wanted to know the opinions of those men—for it could not be presumed for a moment Jouneil formed one happy family, ous i ite opin It was proba: ud one Th precaution it abuses in the future would lie in the admission of the press, and in the early and full publication of the proceedings of the Council, It would tend to create a greater interest in Municipal affairs; and he thought they wust all admit that this was much needed, 1u forme times, perhaps, there might have been some excuse for the exclusion of the press feom the Council meetings; but' now, when he supposed every local newspaper
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.