Rangoon is administered as a separate district. Local affairs are managed by the Municipal Corporation of the City of Rangoon, constituted in 1922 by an elaborate Act recently passed. The Corporation at present consists of 34 Councillors, the maximum number being 40. Of the Councillors, 29 are elected, the rest nominated by the Local Government. Ten are elected by the Burmese community; five by Europeans; four each by Mahomedans and Hindus; two by Chinese; one each by the Port Commissioners, the Chamber of Commerce, the Trades Association, and the Development Trust. The Corporation elects its own President and appoints as its Chief Executive Officer a Commissioner who may be a Government servant. Subject to slight control by the Local Government, the Corporation is empowered to deal exhaustively with all details of municipal administration. The municipal income is about half a million sterling. The town and cantonment are lit by electric light and there is an ample water supply.
One Deputy Commissioner is District Magistrate and controls the administration of criminal justice; a second is Collector. The police of the city is administered by a Commissioner, directly responsible to the Local Government. The rank and file of the police are mostly Indians; but there is a sprinkling of Burmans as well as a small but effective body of mounted European sergeants and constables. The city of Rangoon constitutes a Sessions Division wherein the Chief Court exercises jurisdiction. Trials before the Chief Court are held with the aid of juries, Rangoon and Moulmein, being, except as regards European British subjects, the only places in Burma where the jury system prevails. Large projects for the development of the town are in contemplation. The Rangoon Development Trust, constituted for this purpose, came into being in February, 1921.
Rangoon is the third port in the Indian Empire, surpassed in volume of trade only by Calcutta and Bombay. "Nature has liberally done her part to render Rangoon the most
