Tux poll for the Municipal Council of 1902 will be open to-day and tomorrow from 10 am. to 3 pin. For the information of ratepayers who have not voted before we may repeat hi the information we gave in these columns exactly a year ago "The ballot is held in the Board Room of the Municipal Council, 23, Kiangse Road. The elector is presented with a slip of paper on which the names of the eleven candidates are printed, and he draws his pen through the names of those candidates for whom he does not wish to vote. He can vote for nine or any less number, but ithe leaves more than nine names on the paper his vote is invalid, He can leave only one name on the paper if he likes, but that counts only one vote, not nine votes, to his selected candidate. According to the construction of the Land Regulations, the elector must yote in person. Having erased two or more names and signed his paper, the voter drops it into a locked box, and it is only seen by the two scrutineers who act as poll clerks, so that the candidates cannot tell who have voted for them. It will be noted that the disallowance of proxy voting makes our elections as popular as the Land Regulations permit."
Of the eleven candidates for the nine seats on the Council there are seven British subjects, one American, one German, one Japanese, and one Swiss. To be strictly representative of the ratepayers according to their numbers, the Council should contain seven British subjects, one American, and one German, but it is a good thing that desirable candidates of other nationalities should present themselves and be encouraged to bear their share of the burden of administering this rapidly expanding "Settlement north of the Yangkingpang." It will be a matter for congratulation if Messrs. de Bavier, Menser, Quackenbush, and Yatamore are elected. Unfortunately this involves the non-election of two of the seven British candidates. It would be ungracious even if it were possible to indicate which two of those seven should be "scratched," but whoever the two may be that are left. out, they may console themselves by feeling that it is not from any demerit on their part, but from the fact that all the eleven candidates are so desirable that the result will be very much a matter of chance.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.