During the Easter holidays, the Settlement police have arrested no less than 415 suspicious characters in various districts and more than 200)
them are involved in criminal it was revealed in the First (Special District Court yesterday when both the police and court authorities had a busy time with the newly arrested men. All the court rooms were filled with prisoners, their friends and relatives.
One interesting case was brought up by the Gordon Road police in whose district two men were arrested on Sunday. They were arrested in the evening near Yenping Road and in their possession a pistol and $20 were found. Soon after their arrest, their victim turned up saying that he had been robbed of $29 and he identified one of the arrested men as a robber. They were remanded in custody pending further investigations.
Another interesting criminal case is that the original of many counterfeiteChinese bank notes has been traced to a man employed by a gambling house in the "badlands." He was brought before the court together with another man arrested in Hart Road and alleged to be the owner of the fake money.
Wang Yi-ching, the gambling house employee, was arrested on Monday and on his person the police found more than $130 in counterfeit notes purporting to be issued by the Bank of Communications and Farmers Bank of China. He implicated the other man as the owner of the notes and so the latter was arrested, although no fake notes were found in his Hart Road home. Both of them tried to shift the responsibility of the crime and the hearing was postponed pending further investigation: of the Schedule and that taxation be levied at the following rates:—Land Tax:—At the rate of 9/10ths of one per cent. from January 1, 1940, with a surcharge of 50 per cent. from July 1, 1940, until the next annual meeting of ratepayers, on the values of all land within the limits of the Settlement, payable by the renters thereof, half-yearly in advance.
General Municipal Rate at 18 per cent. from April 1, 1940, with a surcharge of 50 per cent. from July 1, 1940, until the next annual meeting of ratepayers, on the assessed rentals of buildings within the Settlement, payable by the occupants, quarterly in advance.
Special Rate at 16 per cent. from April 1, 1940, with a surcharge of 50 per cent. from July 1, 1940, until the next annual meeting of ratepayers, payable quarterly in advance on the assessed rentals of buildings beyond Settlement limits enjoying Settlement amenities including public utility services.
Licence Fees:—All Licence and other fees to be subject to a surcharge of 10 per cent. until June 30, 1940, and to a surcharge of 50 per cent. from July 1, 1940, until the next annual meeting of ratepayers. The Council on March 20 endorsed the recommendation of the Finance Committee.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.