Yue annual meeting of the Landrenters on the British Concession at Tientsin took place on the 24th of January, and the Council were able to present a favourable report and statement of accounts, The public works have been well kept up, and new work has been done as required. Ihe total receipts for the year 1892 were 'I'ls, 27,411, and the year closed with a balance in cash of I's. 2,806, besides a sum of 'I'ls. 148 due to the Council for unpaid feus and rents. There is also a deposit of Ins, 3,000 in the Hongkong and shanghai Bank, and the Council end their report with the words: " Nothwithstanding considerable depression in mercantile affairs, and the continually falling rate of exchange, the traffic on the British bund maintains its position and we may, therefore, look forward to as good a financial result for the year 1893 as the accounts now submitted exhibit for the present year." Ihe statement of assets and liabilities shows that the community possesses in land, buildings, and moveable property in the settlement 'I'ls. 59,786, and in land outside the settlement 'I'ls, 29,988, in addition to the deposit in the Hongkong Bank and cash 'I's. 5,954. Against this the only liabilities are municipal loans amounting to net 19,400, and a "special account" of 'Ts. 5,570. "There is thus a balance to the good of is. 70,758, 'This' is apparently as favourable a state of things as any community could desire, and we can well understand the Landrenters at their meeting readily adopting the report and accounts, and! re-electing the outgoing Council, of which Mr. Detring, the Commissioner of Customs, is Chairman, en bloc, This might have concluded the business of the meeting, but there were still one or two important matters to be considered, to which the meeting's attention was drawn by a long printed memorandum submitted to the Landrenters by the outgoing Council. It will be remem: bered that, unlike Shanghai, the British Settlement at Tientsin is a British Concession, the whole of the land on which is leased from the British government and this gives the British Consul and the British Minister an exclusive power which they do not possess here. The exciting cause of the memorandum was the receipt by the Council of a letter from the British Consul, Mr. Byron Brenan, dated the 6th of January, 1893, in which the Consul stated: " Her Majesty's Minister is very doubtful of the right of the Municipality to raise loans guaranteed on the concession revenue without authority of Her Majesty's government, andi am instructed to refuse my sanction to a further Joan, Her Majesty's Minister is further of opinion that the Mooring fees on all vessels should be reduced from four and a half cents to three cents per ton, and that vessels that.do not pass Taku should not be called upon to pay Mooring fees." No reasons are given in the letter why the British Minister has taken up. this attitude of opposition to the Council, As regards the Mooring fees, it would seem to us that the Council must know best what steamers can afford to pay, and what it is fair for them to pay; and we note from the memorandum that "the fees received from shipping for the use of the Bund have never Leon in excess of the cost to the Municipality of making and maintaining the Bund and approaches, and providing what is necessary for the safety of goods and convenience of shippers and passengers," The receipts from this source do not, meanwhile, allow of any provision being made for extraordinary repairs, or for replacing the timber bunding, which will not last for ever, and must be renewed before long. Finally we learn that "no complaint has been made to the Council of the present Bund and Mooring Fees. 'I'he only complaint of the shipping interest is that the accommodation is too limited."
The shipping interest wants more accommodation, and it is manifestly unfair to ask the community to provide that, which is a permanent work, out of current revenue, 'I'he natural course is to do it by a loan, withannualdrawings, but this the British Minister has now forbidden. It does not appear that the outsin Local Land Regulations explicity sanction the raising of loans, as the Shanghai Land Regulations do; but they do aathorice the "devising ways and means," etc., and it is difficult to understand why a loan raised by the tientsin municipality on the security of its assets and its annual revenue, is not just as safe as a loan raised by the Shanghai municipality. Moreover, the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.