An employee of the Municipal Council retired on Friday with. a record which it would be hard to beat anywhere, Zee Ching liang h served the Municipality ith fully for. 60 years as Mr. Brodie and Clarke has been out here 59 years and there are only one or two still here who can iB. t his record, it follow:
that Mr. Zee started on before any but two in Shanghai came out and before most of the foreign population of the Sertlement were horn, Mr. Zee was 17 years old when he first entered the Municipal Council's employ and right up to the ripe old age of 77 he has carried on in the Revenue Department, becoming the head of the Chinese staff and having as a special charge the Chinese rates office.
Mr. Zee is a most engaging old gentleman, as much respected and trusted by every. foreigner with whom he has come in contact, as he is held in almost reverential awe by the younger generation of Chinese, He is one of the real old school Chinese,—cultured, courteous and industrious, and he is a example of the f that "squeeze" is not inborn all Chinese. Very few offices wid p int greater opportunities for neeze"? than that over which Mr. Zee presided and many were the times Chinese who thought they had some influence sought to a bargain. He would tell them it) was impossible, and if they—persisted he would answer that it was becoming—quite a possibility that their rate would—be doubled and when at that they fled in terror, Mr. Zee would quietly prepare a report on their conduct.
Small wonder that when the honest vote an had completed of work with the as one day called into the august presence. The old man was ful because no one would tell him what he had done wrong that necessitated' him being '"car-preted'? and he was even more alarmed when Mr. (now Sir Edward)—Pearce shook hands and congratulated him and, as some slight. token of appreciation, handed him a cheque for year salar He had only tried to do his work, he said, and he did not see that there was anything exceptions] about that.
Mr. Zee has now retired with a well earned allowance and he takes with him gifts from both the foreign and Chinese staffs of the Municipal Council. The foreign staff gave him a handsome silver travelling clock and he was told that, however good the clock might be. they scarcely could ex-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.