4th Mar.
TuERE is nothing sensational in the Report for 1895 and Budget for 1896 just issued by our Municipal Council, unless it way be something of a surprise to find the Council proposing to expend T's. 625,000, and only collect from taxes, licenses, ete., 'I'ls.505,000, leaving 'T's. 120,000 to be raised by the issue of debentures, 'I'he excuse for this is that it is proposed to spend some 'T'ls. 176,000 in public works, a part of which is more or less reproductive expenditure and may fairly be put to capital account; but considering that the municipality has already a debenture debt of T'ls.520,000, with other liabilities amounting to over ''is, 70,000, against total assets valued at T's. 815,000 that every year brings its own wants, which will be very largely increased if the negotiations now going on for the extension of the settlement should be successful; it might have been more prudent though less acceptable to the existing ratepayers, to increase the taxation. 'I'he dues exacted from the ratepayers of Shanghai, 4/10ths of one per cent per aunum on the assessed value of land, 8 per cent per annum on the actual or assessed rental of houses occupied by foreigners, and 10 per cent on the actual rental of houses occupied by natives, are very low, considering the benefits given in return, and very much lower than similar taxation in Great Britain, for instance. 1t might be unpopular at the moment to propose an increase in these rates; but anyone who looks through pages 17, 19, and 21 of the Budget, and sees how the large sum devoted to public works is to be spent, will notice that a great deal of it is not permanent work the cost of which should be charged to capital, but current work Iwhich should be paid for out of current i revenue, Pages 121 to 124 of the Report give summary of the accounts for 1895: the total receipts were 'I'ls. 572,000 (excluding the surplus from 1894), the estimate having been 'I's. 534,000. This leaves a gain of is. 38,000, of which about Tls. 21,000 is from drain-pipes, ete, sold, so that the net gain aver the estimate was 'I'ls. 17,000, of which foreign house tax brought in 'I's. 2,000, native house tax 'I's, 4,000, dues on merchandise 'Ts. 2,400, and native license fees 'I'ls. 8,700 more than was e.cpected. 'The expenditure recommended in the budget for 1895, including that authorised at the ratepayers' meeting, was'lls.555,000; the acted expenditure (excluding about 'I'ls. 10,000, deficit on the amended budget) was about 'I'ls. 582,000, showing an excess of 'I'ls. 27,000. he actual amounts expended in' excess of the appropriations made in the budget or not provided for came in the aggregate to about Ils, 83,000 while appropriations not expended came in the aggregate to showing a net excess of...
The Electrical Department made a net profit of Us, 7,409, deposited in the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank to the credit of the Sinking and Depreciation Fund.
through the mass of information, corres It is ar site impossible now to go dence, &c., contained in this report, which has grown to 417 pages. It is decidedly satisfactory to learn that the Council have at last acquired the neccessary land for a rifle range, and for a cemetery. Within the latter, which covers 67 mow, the crematorium is to be erected; but it is to be hoped that the crematorium, when once it is in working order, will become so popular, that the 67 mow of surrounding land will never be required for burials, the present system of burials in Shanghai being repulsively indecent jand insanitary, and utterly unsuited to the conditions of the district. Our predecessors should have adopted and handed on to us the example constantly presented to them by the Chinese in the neighbourhood.
On page 199 of the Report will be fownd a remarkably interesting list, continued in the two following pages. It is in Mr. C. Mayne's exhaustive report to the Works Committee. He points out that "from the opening of the port some fifty years ago to within the last five years, Shanghai was-simply an emporium for the distribution of goods from foreign countries and for the export of the staple articles of China trade. It is now fast becoming a great manufacturing centre. Ihe Settlements are admirably suited for this purpose, being situated on the banks of the Huangpu River, while the Soochow Creek, an important water
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.