No reader of the 'N. C. Daily News,"' to whose Christmas fund for the ricsha men the public have subscribed so liberally for several years, needs to be told that this paper is keenly interested, as indeed are all foreigners in Shanghai, in any undertaking to better the lot of the ricsha-pulling fraternity. But we doubt very much whether letters full of wild _and inaccurate statements, and written in a tone which somehow suggests that everybody except the writer is banded in a conspiracy to tread the coolie down, are Sike ly to do much good. We therefore the more commend to general notice Mr. Matheson's letter to-day. No one can speak with equal knowledge of the ricsha man and, it is needless to say, no one with so much desire for his welfare. What we venture to think the real problem of the ricsha mau amounts to is this, that he should be able to hire his ricsha at a more reasonable price than at present and without the exactions of a number of middle-men between the ricsha and its owner. Were this secured him, the riesha puller would manage the rest of his affairs well enough without need of outside interference. The suggestion that the Municipal Council should own ricshas of their own appears to us an excellent one and we hope it will be realized. There may be exceptions, but at present the ricsha trade is certainly very largely in the hands of men who are not to be trusted with it. Meanwhile we commend to general notice the plan recommended the other day by Dr. Lee, of Wusich—that at the end of the journey one should give the coolie two or three coppers above the fare, telling him that it is cumshaw. fo most of us it means nothing: to the coolie it means a great deal and a little experimenting will show how grateful he is, And One Man in His Time Recent activities by the Chai man of the Council suggest a new and attractive feature in public events. Last week Mr. Simms opened the Szechuen Road bridge by driving over it. On Monday he opened the new swimming bath by diving into it. An endless vista of possibilities is thus opened up. For instance, the Council talks of running its own cinema. The mental picture of the Chairman as municipal movie man, immortalizing a procession of street unions spontaneously bringing in a double rate in gratitude for the Council's beneficent rule, is full of attraction. When the Council starts its own ricshas the example set by the Prince of Wales in Japan is obvious. Municipal bakehouses and laundries are a favourite idea with some people: the inauguration of cither of these would give scope for some clever character acting. So would the opening of a new_ slaughterhouse, though this might be more interesting to spectators than actor.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.