[
    {
        "id": 209411,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1982",
        "page_number": 68,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "46\n\nJ. H. HAAN\n\nlay 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 ..\". \n\nWith 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\". \n\nFrom 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. \n\nAt 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:",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210268,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1984",
        "page_number": 239,
        "title": "RAS-1984",
        "content_text": "218\n\nShanghai in late 1843.\n\nJ.H. HAAN\n\nApart from general missionary duties he was mainly active as a printer and in this capacity he issued numerous tracts in several Oriental languages.\n\nUp to 1854 he was a vocal critic of the Committee of Roads and Jetties (the forerunner of the Municipal Council), especially with respect to the taxes it levied. A number of times he refused to pay them, among other reasons because he thought not enough was done to lay out a proper road to the L.M.S. compound. Trustee of the Shantung Road Cemetery. Portrait.1 Author of many works in English, Chinese and Malay.\n\n146\n\n144\n\n143\n\nMedhurst Road was named after him and his son, W.H. Medhurst Jr., British Consul.\n\nMICHIE, Alexander 1862-1863\n\nBorn 1833, died 1901.147\n\nArrived in Shanghai about 1854 in the employment of Lindsay & Co.;148 partner from January 1, 1861;149 later partner in Chapman, King & Co.;11 was also employed by Jardine, Matheson & Co.151 1886-1891 publisher and editor of the Chinese Times in Tien-tsin.152\n\n150\n\nVice-president of the NCBRAS 1870,153 Member Committee III. 1873.154\n\nAuthor among other works of a biography of Rutherford Alcock.155\n\nMONCREIFF, Thomas 1849-1850\n\nArrival in Shanghai 1846;156 partner in Rathbones, Worthington & Co., from June 1, 1853 Moncreiff, Grove & Co.158\n\nTrustee British Episcopal Church 1856 and subsequent years. Vice-president Shanghai Literary and Scientific Society 1857.159 Member Committee IV.\n\nDied in 1863(?).160\n\nNYE, Clement Drew 1851-1852, 1855-1856, 1865-1866\n\nBorn 1821, died 1867.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 212212,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1990",
        "page_number": 154,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "―\n\n131\n\nEast. Thirty-five million tons of shipping entered the port each year, carrying twenty-five per cent of the trade of China. The vast town was controlled by three independent authorities: the International Settlement, where British and American influence predominated; the French Concession, mostly residential; and the Chinese Municipality. A polyglot population of between four and five million Chinese, and fifty thousand foreigners, thronged the streets. The war had brought about a great shift of population from the Chinese area, where residents were exposed to Japanese oppression, to the comparative safety of the two foreign areas, whose Chinese inhabitants increased from 1½ millions to 4 millions, resulting in a heavy congestion.\n\nIt was a far cry back to those days in 1845, when in the British Concession, before it was amalgamated with the American district to form the International Settlement, the British Consul appointed \"three upright merchants\" to act as a Committee of Roads and Jetties to supervise the inconsiderable municipal needs of a small community living on a mud bank. From those simple beginnings had grown the proficient machine required to cope with the extensive complexities of a unique metropolis.\n\nH.G.W. Woodhead, the talented editor of \"Oriental Affairs\", described the functions of the Municipal Council of the International Settlement, and I cannot do better than quote his words:\n\n\"Owing to its peculiar status as a sort of 'imperium in imperio', the Shanghai Municipality has had to shoulder various responsibilities that in other countries would be assumed wholly or in part by the State. For example, it maintains its own Defence Force, the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, and a highly efficient professional Russian unit. It maintains, what, for the average daily number of prisoners, is the largest gaol in the world. It maintains or makes substantial grants in aid to many hospitals. It started subsidizing Foreign education in 1880, and Chinese education in 1900, and now operates, or makes grants in aid, to numerous Foreign and Chinese schools. It has an Industrial Section, which concerns itself with labour problems, and also controls the rickshaw business to the extent of limiting hire charges, and providing for welfare work among the pullers. It maintains a public library and a municipal orchestra and an up-to-date Public Health Department. And it finances these and other important activities such as Policing, the Fire Brigade, Public Works, etc., mainly from",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299",
        "rank": 0
    }
]