To the Baltor of the jantu-Cuwa, Dalny News"
SmI see that the proposal for the sal of this lawn has, after many reverses, been again brought up, and this time with a certain measure of success so far as the Cathedral Trustees are concerned, but T Imagine that it still has to obtain the sanction of the Ratepayers, which ig quite another matter. What 1 should Uke to know Is this, If the Municipal Council ig so terribly short of money that it is obliged to cut the salaries of its staff and to increase the public rates in order to make doth ends meet, how can it possibly afford to give this large sum to the Cathedral? Road-widening at this particular point is decidedly a luxury that might well be postponed unfit better times, and the line of private rickshaws that now occupies so much of this part of Kiukiang Road could be told to move on. If this payment to the Cathedral 1s not: brought up for the sanction of the Ratepayers 1, for one, shall wait to know. the reason Why.
Shanghai, Apr, 29, "The Council has no obligation 10 Ratepayers, High' Court, ie, Court of Fist Appeal, he may also ask for provi sional execution of the judgment without having to put up any deposit, provided of course the judgment of the lower Court is upheld by" the High Court. 'There are other provi-Seduro and, as" sieguatde agit cedure and as isa Gllatory' tactics, which are however too numerous to be mentioned here.
With reference to the question of eviction, Tam afraid there exists some cal ground for complaint, not against the law itsett but rather' the way bag been interpreted. It may™ be pled that according to Article 40 of the Civit Code; days or even to be not "reasonable." the rent in arrears, or sent a notice, he has failed,' however, to fix w definite period in such notice, or if the period fixed is not long enough to be considered "reasonable," his petition for eviction will usually be dismissed, even if the tenant is in default for over a year or even two years. This is obviously. a misconstruction of the law and" is one which has no doubt, worked injustice inva number of eviction cases. A provision originally intended for the protection of the lessors has thus, curiously enough, come to operate in favour of the lessee. I do not for moment question the integrity of th Judges who have been responsible Yor judgments of this kind and they have no doubt done what they did cut of sympathy for the tenants and in view also of the acute depression from which Shanghai has been suf fering for the past few years. It cannot also be denied that there are cases in which eviction will cause hi great hardships to the, tenants and that the liberal oF ther distorted construction of the law in their favour is" justifiable at least on humanitarian grounds. But, think Judges sitting on the benches of the local Courts ought to realize that this is a cosmopolitan city, that the manner in which they dispense justice will affect the question of abolition of consular jurisdiction, and that therefore higher interests are at stake than those of individual litigants whose plights may be deserving of the deepest sympathy.
Lastly, with regard to the question of costs, T must, point out that the statement made in the article that costs are not given against the loser Is Incorrect. As a matter, of fact, Hthe so-called Court costs' are in= variably given against the loser. These costs are however limited to the mount the plaintiffs have to pay to the Court when they bring up an action, og well as the expenses Incurred in buying petitions, paying for the service of judicial processes, etc, They do not include the fees or remunerations payable to, counsel or attorneys. In fact, the "system of jimaking the loser in a suit bear he fees payable to attorneys can never be feasible in Chin, In the first
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.