CO537-1651 — Page 183

Minutes of the Third Menting of the Municipal Constitution Committee held on the 9th July, 1946, at the Municipal Conf unus Room,

Municipal Building, at 2.15 p.m.

Present:

Other members;

Mr. 5. Laycock, Chairman Messrs. W. Bartley

H.P. Bryson

Lee Chin Tuan

Ten Chin Tuan

N.A. Mallal

F.J. Remlo and

Che' Abdul Aziz bin Ishak.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 2nd July, 1946, which had been circulated, were amended, confirmed and signed by the Chairman.

For the purpose of incorporation in the Report the wording of the recommendations decided on at the last meeting was discussed. The Chairman pointed out that this discussion of the wording of the recommendations decided upon at the last meeting would save a lot of time in the final drawing up of the Report.

On the suggestion of Mr. Mallal the meeting agreed to adjourn the question of extending the Municipal boundaries to the next meeting to allow members more time to visit all the areas in view.

The Chairman, proceeding to the next em on the agenda, said that it would be suitable for items 4 and 7 of the agenda to be considered together. He said that the number "27" being a multiple of 3, appeared to him to be most suitable for the number of Commissioners, and "9", also a multiple of 3, for the number of wards. This would enable things to work easily on a triennial basis with one-third of the Commissioners retiring every year. Apart from being a multiple of 3, the number "g" appeared to fit in with the number of distinctive districts of Singapore Town. It was suggested that the following districts were more or less homogeneous and possessed their own characteristics namely, Katong, Geylang, Serangoon-Balestier, Tanglin and Pasir Panjang, and these were suitable for conversion into electoral words. The number "24" also appeared to be convenient and workable. Mr. Bartley although agreeing with the Chairman on the number of Commissioners, considered that there should be more wards in order to have more local representation. Mr. Bryson, however, suggested 6 wards each electing 3 Commissioners.

On the question of the number of Commissioners the meeting unanimously agreed on twenty-seven.. The question of the number of wards was, however, tied up with the practicability of one-third of the Commissioners retiring each year. On the question of the retirement of Commissioners, Mr. Bryson thought that to have one-third of the Commissioners retiring each year with annual elections might ontail unneccssery work and trouble. The Chairman considered that the advantages of annual retirements would greatly outweigh the disadvantages. On this point Mr. Bartley stressed the importance of having a system whereby two-thirds of the Commissioners would always have had more experience as opposed to a system whereby a completely new set of Commissioners was appointed every three years. After further deliberations the meeting decided on nine wards. The question of the ward boundaries, being tied up with the question of extending the Municipal boundaries, was adjourned for future discussion.

On the question of defining ward boundaries and estimating their populations Mr. Bartley said that things should not be held up because a census had not been taken and because exact figures of population could not be ascertained. It was agreed that an interim recommendation be made to Government for an early census to be taken of Singapore.

Dealing with the question of a Mayor, the Chairman mentioned cities like Bombay and Colombo which have a Mayor in addition to a Commissioner who is the head of the executive. Mr. Kemlo thought that the re-establishment of the Municipal Commission was still in an experimental stage, and it would be better to retain the President of the Commissioners as at present. meeting agreed to leave the question of a Mayor for future consideration by

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