Mr. Gilbert Pect asked for som explanation on the money it was proposed to vote to the employees who were retiring. He presumed that the Council had been paying them a fairly good salary, and if they had served for a sufficient number of years they would be in a position to have saved enough for their years of retirement. He wanted an_explanation why it was; proposed to pay these sums, might come to a very big thing in the future.
Mr. Brooke Smith explained that old servants of the Council had had (no superannuation until 1903, and therefore the Council had not provided anything towards their retirement. During their service they' had been paid salaries which had not enabled them to save sufficient to retire upon if they considered the present high cost of living.
In answer to a further question Mr. Brooke Smith said that employees of the present day who would be in the Council's service for the next 20 years or so would receive no pension because of the amount set aside by the Council.
The Budget resolution was then put to the meeting and carried unanimously.
Press aNp CovnolL Meerines.
The meeting then proceeded to consider Resolution X, to the effect that it is desirable to admit repressentatives of the Press to full meetings of the Municipal Council.
In proposing this resolution Mr, Cecil Holiday pointed out that in some respects things were going very badly in Shanghai and it be-hoved them to bestir themselves and put matters straight. Expenditure had been going up by leaps and bounds, and extravagance was rife in every Department and it was only held back a little because the ratepayers a year ago made it clear that a limit had been reached. Then ho asked whether the Council enjoyed the respect of the community and exercised unquestioned authority. Ho replied that they did not. Financially and generally matters had been growing worse and worse, and all the time the proceedings of the Council had been more and more shrouded in mystery. If the Coun. cil wanted to avoid making mistakes they must let, the ratepayers know what they contemplated. On these grounds he appealed for support for the resolution, In seconding the resolution Mr. P. W. Goldring drew attention to the British Act of Parliament compelling local municipal bodies to admit accredited members of—the He pointed out that there 2 hundred and one things which the ratepayers wanted to know.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.