History of the Penang Town Hall

A TOWN HALL QUESTION FOR PENANG. The Independent discourses on the insufficiency of the accommodation of the Penang Town Hall owing to the space taken up by the Municipal Offices. It gives the following account of how the Hall was built:— Long years ago, in the sixties, or thereabouts, certain owners of properties along the then Beach Street foreshore, were surprised as well as delighted at a species of natural reclamation to which their lands were being subject. The gradually receding sea left them, every year, a yard or so more ground, and as the sea went out, quite as a matter of course, their boundary walls went out also, the owners naturally concluding that what was nobody's before, must be theirs henceforth. They were not allowed, however, to long dwell in blissful ignorance of the obligation they had, all unwittingly, assumed. One fine day, a Government Commission swooped down upon them, and assessed that naturally reclaimed land at a thumping figure. Then there was dismay and consternation amongst those who had extended their boundaries and, finally, a committee of arbitration was appointed to settle the affair. The result of their delibreations was soon made known, and the landowners had to pay down a lump sum of $55,000, to "be used in some work of public utility in Penang." The money was collected and placed in the hands of the Singapore Government, who promptly used it in defraying part of the expenses of the Perak war, which was then being waged. For years the Penangites urged upon the Government the necessity for a Town Hall here, and, at length, wearied out by the importunities of our old time townsfolk, doubtless, the Government concluded to let them have the money back — sans interest — for the purpose required. $25,000 of the amount went towards the construction of a Chinese Town Hall and, with the balance of $30,000, the Penang Town Hall was then built, as a place of public amusement, some $5,000 being added by the Municipality. Thus, the Town Hall is neither Government nor Municipal property, but the property of the people, and theirs to do what they like with. If the Municipality can show us any deed or document confirming its right to locate its offices in the Town Hall, we shall be satisfied and hold the peace for ever; but we have every reason to believe that this cannot be done. What we have now to do, is to propose that we, the town's folk of Penang, pay back the Municipality its original expenditure of $5,000 towards the expenses of erecting offices for its employees, and, forming ourselves into a sort of syndicate, take over the Town Hall, its up-keep, and its revenues, for the purpose of which a motion should at once be laid before the Municipal Commissioners. The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (Weekly), 15 December 1891, Page 377