Municipal Administration in Singapore
| Published date | 01 March 1946 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1946.tb03064.x |
| Date | 01 March 1946 |
| Author | K. J. O'Dell |
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
have hitherto been almost wholly confined to inspection, to the collection and
dissemination of information and to purely administrative functions such as the
granting of licences. The functions
of
the National Advisory Service will be
something quite different and quite new. The service will primarily be con-
cerned with advising farmers as
to
the best technical methods
of
production-
a
matter which has not hitherto been regarded as falling within the sphere of
the State or of civil servants. It is true that
a
service of this kind was provided
before the war by universities and colleges and by county councils, but it repre-
sented
a
facility offered-and unevenly at that-rather than a deliberate policy
of the State taking responsibility for
promoting
the efficiency of production.
This new work can only be done with the closest ccmperation
of
the industry
itself. Before the war we invented new methods for dealing with the relation-
ship
of
the State and the industry in promoting more efficient agricultural
marketing. We have now got
to
devise new machinery for collaboration
of
the
State and the industry in promoting efficiency in production. My
own
view is
that our war-time experiment with C.W.A.E.Cs points the way. Whether these
principles are capable of a wider application to other industries
I
cannot say.
That, Mr. Chairman,
is
the thought
I
leave with the Institute of Public
Administration.
Municipal Administration in Singapore
By
K.
J.
O’DELL,
A.I.M.T.A.
An
Assistant
Treasurer
of
the
Singapore
Mumcipulity
PRELIMINARY
THE Straits dollar has a par exchange value of
two
shillings and fourpence in
The area of the Municipality of Singapore is approximately thirty square
miles.
In
the year
1827
the population
of
the
island of Singapore was given as
13,732.
In
1939
it had increased
to
approximately
750,000,
made up as
follows
:
-Chinese,
584,000;
Malay,
75,000;
Indian,
60,000;
European,
14,000;
Eurasian,
8,000;
others,
9,OOO.
HISTORY
sterling currency.
The birth of municipal government in Singapore dates from the year
1822,
when through public demand certain
ad
h
committees were formed.
No
special municipal law was enacted, and the working of the committees, which
dealt with drains,
street
lighting and the regulation
of
buildings, proved
to
be
so
unsatisfactory that strong protests were made to government to extend Indian
municipal law to the
town.
An
Act
to
establish a municipality was
passed
in
1856, and was the charter for the town for
thirty
years. The transfer
of
control
from the East India Company to the Home Government involved merely the
adoption
of
the Indian Act which was superseded in
1887
when the first
municipal ordinance was passed by the Straits Settlements Government.
This
ordinance remained
in
force
until
1906,
when an amplified
ordinance
super-
seded it, which
was
in
turn
repealed by the ordinance of
1913,
the
principal
ordinance in force until the Japanese occupation.
22
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