Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎468v] (61/238)

274 The Progress of the Municipal Idea in India.
have been. The total number of municipalities was 165,*
inclusive of the four in the towns of K-ardchi, Hyderabad,
Shikdrpur, and Sukkur in Sind, as in the previous year.
It would be foreign to our purpose to go into the details
of the taxation by which the necessary funds for the support
of these institutions were raised, or the incidence of that
taxation in the several municipalities, our object being to
show how far the opportunity for assisting in local self-
government in different localities has been made use of by
the amount of attention devoted to the subject by individual
members of the municipal committees.
We are glad to see that encouragement is given in the
Bombay resolution to the Presidents and Vice-Presidents
of those municipalities who have distinguished themselves
by their exertions during the year by the publication of their
names as an example to others : this was in the munici
palities of Broach, Poona, Igatpuri, Lonaula, Dharwar, and
Bijdpur. It would be as well if the Government of Madras From 1684-1858, the East India Company’s administration in the city of Madras [Chennai] and southern India. From 1858-1947, a subdivision of the British Raj.
would do the same, and services of this nature would be
cheaply rewarded by the bestowal on those worthy of it of
the new Order of Merit recently instituted for service in
India. To come to particulars : In the twenty-one Madras
municipalities there were altogether 1,735 meetings held ;
of these (or possibly exclusively of these, for the returns
are not clear), meetings to the total number of 166 had to be
adjourned for want of the attendance of a quorum. Among
these, the chief offenders were the municipalities of Manga
lore, Vellore, and Cuddapah, which figure respectively for
nineteen, fifteen, and fourteen occasions.
In Bombay the returns are given in different forms for
the different divisions. In the Northern Division, out of
357 quarterly and special meetings held, thirty-three had to
be adjourned for want of a quorum, and 182 out of 536
Commissioners or Councillors did not attend at two-thirds.
In the Central Division, out of 556 meetings, 158 had to be
adjourned; but whether in the absence of a quorum or for
* Not including the town and island of Bombay.