Srd une, is possible that some of our renders may have passed over, without giving them special attention, the Minutes published yesterday morning of the meeting of the Municipal Council on the 25th of May last, but there are points therein that deserve notice. In the first place we have to thank the new administration for giving us a readable abstract of the Engineer's report of the public works completed during April and in progress, instead of the mass of dry and stony details that used to be thrown' down before the} ratepayers once a month, From the; return of the Getieral Municipal Rate, Native, for the first quarter of tle year it will be learnt that there are 31,903 native houses in the Settlements north of the Yangkingpang, against 31,384 Inst year; while the assessment has increased from $2,092,898 to$2,612,642. Qn the other hand the number of empty houses has decreased from 657 to 588 and the tax collected has increased from $50,808 to $63,459. This is an indication of the rise that has taken place in rents during the year, As there are over aquarter of a million Chinese in the Settlements, the average appends to be about eight to house instead of the traditional five, and the direct taxation they pay is at the rate of about a dollar a head per annum, which cannot be considered exorbitant, The Minutes before us contain the first official announcement of the establishment. of the. French Volunteer Company, a movement to which every one on this, side also of, the Yangkingpang cannot but wish success, the announcement being coupled with the statement that the new French Company, under the orders of the Cousul-General of France, is destined to ce-operate, with the Shanghai Vol-untoer Corps in the defence of the Concessions, The. Shanghai Vol-untoer Corps lias. always been an international force, and Frenchmen have been as, welcome in its ranks as the citizens or subjects of any. other Power; but the Germans having. begun the system of a separate Company, it was not. unnatural that the French. should do: the -same; and these national companies have the advantage that they induce many men to become Volunteers who might not be disposed to join a company in which they were largely outnumbered by Englishmen. An emulation, too, springs up of ahenithy kind that' adds considerably to the spirit with which the force is maintained. 'I'he Russians are becoming so numerous in Shanghai, that it will soon be time for a Russian Company to be formed. Perhaps before long there will be. no necessity for Volunteers here; for there are some who assert that within two years our police and our citizen soldiers will be replaced by Cossacks, if Russia goes on making'the advance that she has made the last year, while the other Powers look on complacently, A letter from the Japanese Acting Consul-General follows which is merely formal, but is noticeable from his addressing the Chairman of the Council, Mr. Burkill, as his "dear colleague." Then comes a long correspondence in reference to the proposed extension of the Kungping Road in Hongkew. This is an extension northward of the Kungping Road for about 150 yards from the Seward Road to the Singkeipang Creek. It would virtually lead nowhere at present, but it is part of the scheme of new roads in Hongkew laid out some years ago, and it comes under the maxim that you should always get a new road when you can even if it leads nowhere, as yon will have to pay a great deal more for it when you really want it. It appears that the first application for the Jand to make this road came from the Council some years ago, and at Last the opportunity has come to acquire it, but the Council find the price asked for the land excessive, and, pointing out that the road will be a grent benefit to the landholder as well as to the public, they ask the former to pay half the cost of the Iand. The landowner replies that he proposes to make a 20ft. private road, and will then be able to get three houses on the land; if he gives the 80 feet required by the Council, he can only get two houses on the ground, and he would rather have a private than a public road alongside his houses. Here the matter rests for the present; but considering the small amount involved, and the certainty that at some future time the Council will have to buy this private road at a vastly enhanced price, it will be shortsighted of the Council not. to close with the offer of Mr. Ambrose.
Tt would be too much to cull the Council panay-wise and pound-foolish, but at first' sight they seem to be drifting into this category when we come to the correspondence that follows in reference to the purchase from the Shanghai Land Investment Association of a strip of land to widen the Peking Road. There is no pressing demand for the widening of this road, but the Council are certainly right to take the chance when they can get it, but the rate at which they have agreed to buy, 'I'ls. 17,500 per mow, is a little staggering at first. The Council offered Ts. 10,000 a mow, which is above the assessed value, pointing out, as usual, that the widening of Peking Road would be " benefit to the Association as well as to the public. Also as usual, the Association replied that the widening of the road would uotbenefit thematall, and they wrote on the 20th ult. that unless their terms were accepted in a week, they would begin to prepare to build on the property. Accordingly on the 26th ult. the Council wrote accepting the terms; and we learn that the price, excessive as it sents, is the price actually paid by the Association to Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Ca, for a piece of the land bought to rectify the former's boundary. Herein is unquestionably s sufficient explanation of the high price paid for the twenty-two-hundredths of a mow which is to be added to the area of the Peking Road.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.