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Leader (1850-1860), 26th March 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 24, INDIA AND INDIAN FRGaRESS.

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      4o8 -. The Leabeb, [No. 4/0, March 26, 1...

      4 O 8 -. THE LEABEB , [ No . 4 / 0 , March 26 , 185 Q .

      India And Indian Frgaress.

      INDIA AND INDIAN FRGaRESS .

      Municipal Institutions In India. Wjb Las...

      MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA . Wjb last week called attention to municipal infc-titutions in India , arid to the retrograde step of dismissing the honorary , magistrates , which \ vc considered calculated to weaken the cause of municipal advancement . Mr . Ewart , ' who has done so much for the practical benefit of India , has , we are xlad to see , taken this subject of municipal

      institutions under his charge ; and as , during the course of his long parliamentary ' career , he has never abandoned any measure until he has succeeded in its realisation , the friends of India wilt be gratified to find that this important one is now under his care . Proceeding in his usual course , by laying a basis of satisfactory information , Ml \ -EwaiT , on Tuesday , moved for a return of the municipalities of India , and likewise of the honorary magistrates and justices of the peace .

      As this siil . 'ioct is little understood in this country , even among old Indians , whose attention may'have been chiefly directed to other questions — -to ilieui of iuoiv importance— -. we ¦ shall .- proceed to give a few deta Is . Except in Bombay , where there ere some relics of the original municipal institutions granted by Charles If ., when liombay was held of the . manor ¦ of . 'East . Greenwich , the municipal institutions , of the chief cities of India are quite recent , and are regulated by what is called the New Conservancy Act , which received the assent of the Governor-General on the 13 th

      deprived of the most ancient of all rights—of selfgovernment . Public buildings , the Coolie bazaar , and places of worship , are exempt from rates ; and the commissioners may exempt from assessment tenements of less yearly value than twenty-four shillings , if the same be the sole rateable property of the owner . This is for the purpose of protecting the small owners . Besides the hpuse tax , the commissioners can levy si tax on all carriages , carts , hackcries , horses , ponies , and mules , within the town , and all carts and hackeries plying for hire . Government carriages and animals are , of course , exempt . There is , further , a lighting rate of 2 per cent ., or about fivepence in the pound . The carriage tax includes the following rates : —Four-wheel carriage on springs , drawn by two horses , 17 * 14 * . yearly ; hackery or common cart , . 6 * . ; horse , 18 s . The municipal commissioners have power to appoint subordinate officers . They are . invested with full powers over the ' ¦ streets , paving , lighting , water . supply , watering , scavenging , and sewage , — in the same way as the corporation of Maneliester . The Calcutta commissioners ivcre directed to carry out a general plan of m-ain drainage , but they have do tie nothing for it yet . A very useful power is given to the commissioners to regulate new huts , and to prohibit the building of them . They have authority to name streets and number houses . Very differently from London , in consequence , of the diflerence of climate , sun shades are allowed to project from the house ? . A * proper provision—here too ' much neglected—is authority to the commissioners to

      The p . jhee magistrates arc two stipendiaries , one with the enormous salary of 2 , 400 / . a-year , and the other with 9601 . a-year . This latter oflicial ' who was a native , was lately dismissed . There are a great number of subordinates , and sonic considerable salaries in the police department . Our readers will not be surprised to leai-n that with the course of administration provided in Calcutta many departments are under military control ; as , for instance , those of public works , and

      the civil architect . The chief engineer is a military oifiicer , arid so is the chief architect . The latter receives 840 / .. a-year , exclusive of his regimental pay and allowances * lie has three assistants at 4 H 0 L , 8007 ., and . 1347 . a-year , the latter a native . Instead of the architect being the chief , and the military officer being his subordinate , all rational arrangements are reversed . We believe in this department there is one young Englishman who has been trained as . an architect , and one as a civil engineer , but vrc are not quite sure .

      'Under'these acts the three commissioners lately acting , were . -Mr . S . Wanchope , of the civil service ; Major II . L . Thuillier , of the Artillery ; amOIr . A . M- ; JDowleans— not one merchant , or independent person . Mr . Wanchope holds likewise the office of Commissioner of Police , Avith a large . salary , ' . As Municipal Coiii . niis ^ Ioner he received-3 . 00 Z . a-year . Major Thuillier , who holds -another oliice , received 300 £ . a-vear . 3 Ijr . Dowleans , holding no other office , received l , 000 ha-year . The other chief officials and salaries at a late date were- —the Secret arv to the

      Commissioners , 960 / . ; the Assessor , 4 S 0 / . ; the Surveyor , 8407 . ; the Accountant , 240 / . ; two Examiners of Empty Houses , 120 / . each ; six overseers , 168 / . each ; Superintendent of Steam-engine , 1 G 8 Z ; four Inspectors of Wheel and Horse Taxes ,-168 / . each . Municipal Commissioners have been appointed at some of the up-country , towns on a more liberal system , including natives as well Europeans , exceptjat Simla , where all the chief inhabitants being English , the commissioners arc exclusively English . At Simla the commissioners arc chiefly officials . At all places where the oflicinl clement is not strong the commissioners are kept under the strict control of the authorities , as at the large station of Dacca , a city with 45 , 000 inhabitants and great trade ; but where ,. nevertheless , in one way of the

      or another , by the injudicious arrangements Government , " the action of the municipality is much crippled . The number of eommissioii , ers at Dacca , is seventeen—iiine English , three Armenian , and the others Mahometans and Hindoos . JiMr . Forbes , who gave much valuable evidence bo fore tho Colonisation Committee on Indian subjects , can give some good information to Mr . Kwurt on tho Dacca municipality , as , he was its honorary socrctary . Another institution in the nature ot » municipal one , is the Local Committee of lubho-Instruction , ' of which there was an example at Dacca . There were fcix oiliciul mcmlicw , ol whom one to a native , and seven elected liiOmberH , of whom two are English , two Armenian * , two-Hindoos , and oiio Mahomodun .

      establish public necessaries and urinals . I here is a curious proviso in the clause which gives power to the commissioners to enter , any house for the purpose of rectifying the drains or cesspools , and that is , " Provided always , that nothing hereinbefore contained shall authorise an entry into the zenanas or private apartments appropriated to the females of Hindoo and Mussulman-families for the purpose of such inspection , except by the agency of women . " This is just one of the examples of the great tenderness for native prejudices -of the old Government , without the lqast regard for any other considerations . A more equitable considcrar tion would have provided that Englishwomen , at least , should not be -annoyed by the black myrmidons of the commissioners , and the privilege might have been extended to the females of the families of

      other Europeans now increasing—of Armenians , Jews , I ' arsees ; in fact , of females generally , without conferring an insidious prejudice and an invidious distinction . The result of this enactment , the propriety of which is questionable ( for the practice might have been safely left to the ' officials' ) , is to give a legislative privilege to Hindoo and Mussulman , women , ana to fortify tlie accusation that English and other white women ore less endowed

      with feelings of modesty than native fbmale . s . In the cities of tropical climates bathing is an important practice , and accordingly the commissioners arc empowered to set apart any public ghaut , or place , or the strand of the river , for the inhabitants to batho in ; also , to sot apart a sufficient number of tanks for the inhabitants to bathe in , " and to , set apart tanks for washing animals or clothes . They can also regulate the time and place of bathing for persons of each sex , " winking due allowance for the habits nn < l customs of tho

      country . " They have- control over slaughterhouses , unwholesome trades , burial-grounds , im < l ^ burning-grounds . " They have directions to provide a registry of deaths . A rational regulation is , that all notifientions filial ] bo made in English , ns well us in tho vernacular language chiefly in uso . Proceedings under these Acts for uppoals on rating 1 , and in questions of dumagos , are to bo brought bofbro , nny two magistrates , bat in Bombay by the Court of Petty Bossiohs .

      1 his is exclusive of tho police establishment , which , iiutond of being under the luiuiicipnlltv , according to the custom throughout tho umpire * U placed under the Government , neconUn" ' to tlio oxcoption . nl' practice of the metropolitan police .

      June , 18 , JG . It is Act No . XIV . of 1856 . This Act applies to the cities of Calcutta , Madras , Borabay , and the stations of Prince of Wales ' s Island , Singapore , and Malacca , and it gives extensive powers to the commissioners for carrying-but ' public : improvements . Tie- Calcutta Act is further modified by Act No . XXVIII . of 1856 , an Act for appointing Municipal - 'Commissioners in Calcutta . We shall give .. the-provisions of this Act , because , being applied to the metropolitan city of India , it will be seen what extent of liberty is likely to be provided ibi * other cities of less importance . This Act repeals the previous municipal Acts XandXIf . of 1852 , and XXVIII . of 1854 . It provides that there shall be three municipal commissioners . These commissioners are not at all appointed by the English citizens of Calcutta , or by the ratepayers ^ neither have they any local qualification . They are strictly ( a-overiiinent nominees , and are appointed by the local Government of Bengal , being : named by the Lieutenant- ' - Governor ; and , in order fully to destroy any in * , dependent action , they are u removeable at his pleasure . " Thus the city of Calcutta , owe of the largest in the English empire and the vvorld , ranking next to London in population , and before Dublin , Manchester , or Glasgow , having a large body of English residents , and many wealthy native merchants , landowners , and professional men , is deprived of independent municipal action , and is at the mercy of three Government nominees . As if in mockery , and ,, to constitute a solemn force , they arc styled tho Municipal Commissioners of the town of Calcutta , and , are by such name " a body corporate , and have porj . otual succession , and a common soul , and by such name shall sue and bo sued . " They have the attributes of ¦ what is commonly understood in England as a corporation , but they Imvo not its soul . The Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal has power to name one of the commissioners to bo President of the Board of Commissioners , and to fix the allowances the commissioners are to receive . The commissioners -are to meet at least once a week , two to farm a quorum , and tho president to have a costing vote . Tho commissioners Imvo power to raise a rate of 74 per cent , of the annual value of all houses , buildings , and lands in tho town , that is -to say , a rato of eightconpenco in tho pound . . Tho " i * atos pro payable by tho owners of property . The town is all the jiiriadiotion under tho Supremo 'Court of Calcutta , so that -while English citizens and Bubjccts are there gunranteed nil tho civil wghts and privileges of English civil and criminal Jaw , tho right of ' a jury in civil nnderhninul caiwea , and the protection of the habeas corpus , thoy are

      .Latest Indian Intelligence. The Overlan...

      . LATEST INDIAN INTELLIGENCE . The overland mail has arrived with iiiloHItfonc © from Romhfiy to tho 25 th ulr . Tho campaign on tlio borders of Nepaul , lma not mudo any extraordinary progress . Brigadier Ilorsford defeated tlio ailyniiccd irunrd of tho roliele , on tho 10 th IM > ., in tlio noigl ; - bourlino < l 0 i ' I 3 nnkce . The - enemy ' s advanced posir tion was attacked amd captured without loss ou puff side , the rebels taking flight at our nppronuli , ana leaving in our Immls 14 guns and a mortar , jo mnin luu \ v of tho lilfllirirCMl tS WUS thirty lllllCS tO tllC

      onBtwnrd , on tho nonherri declivity of tho hi Ms Uxomg UrigndU'r Kow . croft ' a on nip nt Liswii . J - - I t '" U attempt phould Uo made by tlic rebels thore , who juo HiinpQSC ' d to l » o inulor the imnicdlntooDiiJiniuul oltio Begum , Wenl Malulo , and Nnna » uhlb , aoolnmn «• ns ordered to tuko up « i posltUm on tho Q » nilnk . ftf tho foot of tho liills , under tho command »» < - »> ' { Kelly . jMovcmonts of a similar nature iur tho minii Of the frontier w « f « t of Ilankco were nmdp If ' Filtbiivut . Jung Biilnuloor luis bcliavud wuIj ffroi « sincerity nud oonlUillty throughout , nnd ht-o » anxious Hint tlio mlHguldod runumnt vi l » 8 i » tfo >• » should Burronaei' rntliur ihnn allow thuwsulvca to u «

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 26, 1859, page 24, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26031859/page/24/