46
J. H. HAAN
lay in the Land Regulations. In those of 1845 article XX declared that "the several contributors (of taxes, etc JH) will request the Consul to appoint three upright merchants to deliberate upon and determine the amount to be subscribed by them". And the 1854 Land Regulations stipulated in article X “meeting of renters of land.. to appoint a committee of three or more persons to levy the said rates and dues ..".
With 10 out of the 29 articles of the Land Regulations of 1869 referring to the Municipal Council, this set of Regulations were far more elaborate as to the election and functioning of the Municipal Council than their predecessors. This was mainly caused by the problems several councils had faced in the 1860s as a result of which it was decided to strengthen the powers of the executive. Article XIX laid down the qualifications for a Municipal Council member: "And no one shall be qualified to be a member of the said Council unless he shall pay an annual assessment, exclusive of licenses, of fifty taels, or shall be a householder paying on an assessed rental of one thousand two hundred taels per annum".
From this it is clear that the qualification for membership of the Council was even more restrictive than that for voting (the threshold for Council membership as suggested by the Commission of 1865-66 was even higher at Taels 1800, but this was changed by the foreign ministers). This was in sharp contrast to the earlier constitutions by which it was theoretically, and even in practice, possible for non-landrenters to sit on the Municipal Council, whereas only landrenters had the vote, thereby indicating that, at that time, the qualification for membership of the Council was more liberal than that for the franchise. In the records of the Settlement's early history (until 1865) two cases have come to light in which a non-landrenter was elected as a member of the Municipal Council, but in both cases there was some opposition from part of the foreign community.
At the Public Meeting of June 14 1851 three gentlemen were proposed for membership of the executive then still called the Committee of Roads and Jetties, a name it kept until 1854 — William Seton Brown, Clement D. Nye and Edward Langley,37 viz:
46
J. H. HAAN
lay in the Land Regulations. In those of 1845 article XX declared that "the several contributors (of taxes, etc JH) will request the Consul to appoint three upright merchants to deli- berate upon and determine the amount to be subscribed by them". And the 1854 Land Regulations stipulated in article X “ meeting of renters of land.. to appoint a committee of three or more persons to levy the said rates and dues ..".
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With 10 out of the 29 articles of the Land Regulations of 1869 referring to the Municipal Council, this set of Regulations were far more elaborate as to the election and functioning of the Municipal Council than their prodecessors. This was mainly caused by the problems several councils had faced in the 1860s as a result of which it was decided to strengthen the powers of the executive. Article XIX laid down the qualifications for a Municipal Council member: "And no one shall be qualified to be a member of the said Council unless he shall pay an annual assessment, exclusive of licenses, of fifty taels, or shall be a householder paying on an assessed rental of one thousand two hundred taels per annum".
From this it is clear that the qualification for membership of the Council was even more restrictive than that for voting (the threshold for Council membership as suggested by the Commission of 1865-66 was even higher at Taels 1800, but this was changed by the foreign ministers). This was in sharp contrast to the earlier constitutions by which it was theoretically, and even in practice, possible for non-landrenters to sit on the Municipal Council, whereas only landrenters had the vote, thereby indicating that, at that time, the qualification for membership of the Council was more liberal than that for the franchise. In the records of the Settlement's early history (until 1865) two cases have come to light in which a non-landrenter was elected as a member of the Municipal Council, but in both cases there was some opposition from part of the foreign community.
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At the Public Meeting of June 14 1851 three gentlemen were proposed for membership of the executive then still called the Committee of Roads and Jetties, a name it kept until 1854 William Seton Brown, Clement D. Nye and Edward Langley,37
- viz:
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