'AN enquiry into.the anomalies connected.with many of the public institutions in Shanghai would be a very interesting one. We mentioned yesterday morning the case of the Lyceum Theatre, a valuable building occupying a large and very valuable piece of ground, which would have no legal owner if any one were to come forward and pay off the debentures, which amount to a sum considerably less than the value of the Theatre. Perhaps the attention we have drawn to the matter may lead the existing trustees to get a trust deed drawn up, and the property legally vested in some responsible body, as was done with the Recreation Fund some time ago. Since we wrote about the Theatre we have learnt that that most valuable institution the Shanghai Library is in a very similar position, as far as ownership is concerned, to the Lyceum. A trust' deed appointing three trustees, who were to hold the books and property of the Library in trust for the subscribers, and without whose consent no books could. be sold or otherwise disposed of, was, we are informed, actually drawn up by Mr. Latham some ten years ago, but it was never signed and has never been signed to this day. The present Rules of the Library contain two clauses, giving the powers of the trustees and implying that such trustees exist, but these Rules have not been revised for some thirty years or so. Recently an old catalogue containing these Rules was unearthed, and a new set were drawn up, the two clauses implying the existence of trustees being retained. 'I'hese new Rules were cently laid before a Committee meeting, and the point about the trustees was discussed, and as it was pointed out that no trust deed existed or ever had existed, except in embryo, it was decided to leave the matter in the Chairman's hands. The Chairman happily undertook to look up the constitution of the Library from the beginning and draw up a new, which will teglly be the first, rust "deed mao three trestooe The Shanghai Librgry, we may mention, was started in 1849, when a list was sent round asking for support towards the formation of a Book Club, and on this slender foundation has been built up the fine Library that now exists.
In the early days of the settlement institutions which have now become of great importance were started by half a dozen people meeting together on the Bund, or at the Club, or at the dinner table; money was easily forthcoming, and as everybody knew everybody, and all were agreed on the object and on the way in which it should be cartied out, there did not seem any necessity for elaborate provisions. Some of the members, if not all, carried in their heads the history of the institution, and could see that it was carried on on the lines originally intended. These old residents however are getting fewer and fewer, while the place grows larger, and stricter definition becomes more and more' necessary. Other instances might, no doubt, be readily found to add to the two mentioned yesterday and to-day.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.