'The Council recommends the issue during the year of Tls. 300,000 debentures, and this' sum, together with the surplus from 1901, Tls. 27,992.31, and the estimated surplus on the ordinary budget, Tls. will make an amount of Tls. 384, able for extraordinary expenditure. It he observed that the Council propose to expend Tls. 425,600, thus leaving a deficit, of Tls. 4, but it is hoped that by the end of the year this wi prove a nominal, or, at least, much smaller one. Payments under thix head are the sta ones which appear as Cop and call for no comment Beyond what has been made in the report. Out of the Tls. 200,000 set down for new roads, it is proposed to apply Tls. 100,000 to the purchase of land in the new districts. It will rest with the Ratepapers under another resolution to say whether the Council is to he authorised to expend this sum, but the Members of the Council are strongly of opinion that the purchase of land now will save the community much in the future.
Two other matters referred to in the Extraordinary Budget require brief comment. The first is the item of Tls. 20,000 estimated to be paid for the site for the Chinese Public School. It. will have been otod from the correspondence published 2 the Annual Report and elsewhere, that in September last a special Committee was appointed by the Council with a view to carrying out. this scheme, and especially to select: a site and prepare plans for the Lroposed building. The latter have been duly drawn up and approved, and the money for the provision of the building remains on deposit at the Hong. kong and Shanghai Bank, but the question of a site still. remains one of considerable difficulty. Negotiations have for some time been carried on between the Committee in the first instance and the Council at.a later date, with the Trustees of the Fu-yun-tang Cemetery, that. Cemetery being in opinion a site eminently suitable in every respect for the purposes of a general Chinese Pablic Institution. It is the Council's opinion that this Institution should consist, not only of the proposed Chinese Public School, but also of the Chinese Library which' was offered to the public by Mr. Lu Shu-fang in May last, together with a contribution of $50,000 for buildings to contain the same,' area of the Cemetery, 24} mow, would ye swflicient to provide for all reasonable needs of the Chinese Community, both a a place of recreation and for educational purposes; every effort has therefore been made through the Chinese Members of the Committee, the Shanghai Taotai, and His Excellency Sheng, to perstiade the Ceme= tery Trustees to dispose of the property, rich is admittedly for sale, for th worthy objects, and the Council ha offered to say for the site the sum of Tls. 42,000, sufficient to provide the Come tery Trustee: with a new grave-yard ina more suitable position and to pay for the removal of the graves, etc. Tt isn matter for general regret. that the negotiations to this end have so far proved fruitless, and that those Chinese gentlemen interested in philanthropic and educational measures should, in a question of such in-portance, have been unable to bring the matter to a satisfactory conchisiny.
ako observe that a contribution of (000 promised by Sir Thomas Hanbury tothe Chinese Library scheme, dependent upon the payment of Mr. Lu Shu-fang's proffered $50,000, has not yet been availed of, because of delay in Mr. Lu's arrange ments, but the Council sincerely hopes that both these contributions will sh ortly be realised, and that, with the acquisition of the Cemetery site, the Chinese comity of Shanghai will be placed i ysment of public tions which shall he a credit to them and to us. Pending a solution of these matters, the Council is averse to providing some small site for the erection of the selool under conditions which could only be rexatded as inadequate and unsatisfacto: The second point to which would draw your attention is that of the proposed building of Foreim Isolation Hospital, with Asylum and Mortuary. in the Scott Road. on which it is proposed to expend a sum of TIL. 25.000 during the present. year. With the recent outbreak of Scarlet Fever freslt in your minds, and in view of the fact that no facilities or accommodation exist at the Shanghai General Hospital to. meet an epidemic of infectious disease, it is almost. unnecessary for me to speak on this subject. It will suffice to say that the Governors of the Shanghai General Hospital have recently had occasion to bring to the notice of the Council the very ser ons state of affairs resulting from conditions. 'The demands upon space and treatment. for ordinary patients at, the Hospital render it' absolutely im. possible in the event of an spider That the sick should receive _snels attention and medical aid as it is the duty of overs community to provide. Futhermore, it must be a matter of common knowledge that the provision of a ward for dangerous lunacy has long
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.