2nd September Is compliance with Mr. McBa suggestion to the Municipal Council some farther correspondence in reference to the culverting of the Yangkingpang is published this morning. It begins with a letter from Mr. McBain to the secretary of the! Council, in which the former briefly reviews Mr. Mayne's utterly incon sistent reports of the 14th of Decem ber 1898 and the 6th of July 19 The former of these reports w addressed to a Council composed. of Messrs. J. S. Fearon, J. Welch, F. Anderson, E. A. Hewett, R. Ingl J. Prentice, M. Rohde, E. Shellina, and P. Stokes, and on it they decided that the Yangkingpang should be culverted. The Municipal necessarily impairs the value of both lof them, and they contain, as we shall endeavour to show, such exit inconsistencies in detail jas well asin sum, that they can be used to support any view of the subject. The most important paragraph in Mr. McBain's letter is the following a matter of fact the crux of the whole question lies in a determination of the Municipal Connell, as representing land awaers nther than house renters (whose interesta I submit are of first importance) not to join bands with the French Municipality in " work which they think will benefit that hicly, a view unworthy of this rogrestive community and which hope and believe will not find response in our eowmopolitan body of ratepayers. am firmly convinced that the filling in culverting of the Creek would be of and equal benefit to bot! Municips and would fully realise Mr. Mayne's for cust in hia report of the 14th Decembm 1898 that "tit would be the finest publi improvement ever carried on' in Shanghai We certain that there is nothing in this second bach of correspondence to weaken Mr. McBain's convicti and we feel sure that the majority the ratepayers in Shanghai who these letters will agree with him, will be remembered that a semi-humerous letter from Mr. Ellis appeared recently in our columns in which Mr. McBain was accused of urging the scheme for his personal profit. Among those who know Mr, McBain such a charge could do little harm, us Mr, Ellis no doubt felt, but itin noted that Mr. McBain, in his letter of the Ist of May 1902, expressed his readin' a landowner interested, to contribute his quota to the cost of the proposed improvement.
In his report in 1898, Mr, Mayne, the Municipal Engineer, explained that it is practically impossible tw dredge the Yangkingpang w the depth required to keep some water tin it at all states of the tide, and concluded by saying: "he filling in and culverting of the Yangkin, {pang would be the finest publ Himprovement ever carried out in Shanghai." Writing on the 11th of August last, Mr. Mayne makes the astounding explanation that he meant that it would have cost infinitely more than any other improvement' (or public work) carried out in Shang-Thai and would have provided a magnificent roadway a mile in length, averaging over one hundred feet in width."
In his report of the th of July this year, Mr. Mayne considers two main points; the first of which is, the se of the present condition of the creek.
As to this, he practically agrees with all th Mr, McBain and ithe doctors have urged, and we need not allude farther to this section. His second point—the expression is his own—is: " Whether jthe remedy "now proposed would Engineer has now entirely changed; be benefit generally to the his mind, and the perusal of his two Foreign Settlement."
He has stated contradictory reports in juxtaposition just before that "from the point: of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.