SHANGHAI
731
lieutenant, the Tuotai Yuan, these bands of salt smugglers grew in numbers and audacity and have so far advanced their organisation as to reach to the west of the T'ai Hu. As in carrying the salt from the coast to the interior they must of necessity cross the river above or below the Foreign Settlements, nominally the stream is guarded by the River Police, mainly composed of a small body of foreigners under the orders of the Maritime Customs; they are, however, few in number for the distance to be guarded, and moreover by the express order of the high Chin se officials are not permitted to carry arms, while the smugglers are well armed and organised. Although it is no part of the business of the Municipal Police to undertake the thankless task of protecting the Imperial Revenue, they are occasionally called on to intervene when some outrage worse than usual takes place on the outskirts of the Settlements.. Cases of this sort have of late become rather numerous, many cases of murder, of gouging out of eyes, and of mutilation having occurred in the immediate suburbs; and so complete is the terrorism that in few cases have the actual culprits been successfully traced, the country people not daring to give evid- ence. Under these circumstances, at the annual ratepayers' meeting in 1906, the Municipal Council were ordered to increase the force of Sikh Police to a thousand men. In a few cases where the perpetrators of these outrages have been arrested and brought before the Mixed Court, every possible means have been brought to bear to defeat the ends of justice by inadequate sentences, or by procuring that the accused should, under one pretext or other, be sent to the City Court for judgment; the almost invariable result in the latter event being that in a month or so the prisoner has been permitted to escape to renew his depredations.
It was to these disturbers of the law that, in December, 1905, as mentioned on page 728 the provincial officials made their appeal at what they alleged to be attempts to interfere with the dignity of the Lord of the Soil. As a fact of course the Munici- pality has shown itself all through more regardful of the Imperial interests than the Provincial authorities. It is only necessary to refer to the pages of the Peking Gazette within the last two years to understand the dangerous state of disorder existing in the lower Province. Unfortunately the headquarters of the Smuggling Association are in the immediate vicinity of the Foreign Settlements, and though very willingly the Municipality would prefer not being in any way forced into contact with any of the political parties of the State, with which it has no concern, the case becomes different when the lives and properties of the residents with which it is charged are endangered. FINANCES
The Ordinary Revenue of the " Anglo-American" Settlement for 1905 amounted to Tls. 1,780,415, and was derived from the following sources :--
Land Tax, five-tenths of 1 per cent.
General Municipal Rates, Foreign Houses, 10 per cent. General Municipal Rates, Native Houses, 10 per cent.
Dues on Merchandise
Licences, principally vehicle, and opium shops Rent of Municipal Properties
•
J
...
...
...Tls. 399,786.34
285,892.27
476,671.08
224,212.84
365,486.78
28,365.51
Tls. 1,780,414.82
The Revenue for 1905 was the highest on record. Nearly all the headings showed a marked improvement and in the aggregate exceeded the Budget estimate by Tls. 162,915, or over 10 per cent., and the income for 1904 by Tls. 275,013, or over 18 per cent.
The Ordinary Expenditure for the same year was Tls. 1,295,886 and was divided among the different departments as under :
Tls. 341,953.15
Police Tls. 312,684.60, Jail Department Tls. 29,268.55 ... Health Department, including Hospitals and Markets... Public Works Tls. 170,770.23, Cleansing and Scavenging Tls. 102,064.98 Recreation Ground, Public Gardens, etc., and Outside Roads Lighting Tls. 56,032.29, Engineer & Surveyor's Staff Tls. 96,669.97 Stock and Stores...
Secretariat Tls. 112,023.29, Legal and General Tls. 9,843.94 Interest on Debentures and Loan less Interest received Sinking Fund .....
64,141.68 272,835.21
+
25,586.49
152,702.26
27,388.85
121,867.23
76,287.31
104,550.00
86,892.92
21,670.43
Volunteers Tls. 38,026.56, Fire Dept. Tls. 22,511.82, Band Tls. 26,354.54 Educational Grants
...
Digitized by Google
Tls. 1,295,885.53.
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