Jan. 5.
January 17 is the date fixed for the French Municipal Council election, and no excuse is required on our part for an endeavour to arouse something more than the averdfe attention given it by local residents. Let it be borne in mind that only about two hundred and seventy ratepayers out of a total of over a thousand took the trouble to register their votes a year ago, and the record poli of the year previous, when the campaign in connexion with the tramways and electric light had raised interest to a very high pitch, was no more than 492. On the present occasion there is nothing on the surface to attract ratepayers to the polling booth, for no section of the candidates has offered any striking programme such as that mentioned. But there is already talk of a contest, and that being the case it should be a duty on the part of the ratepayers to see that the successful candidates go to the Council on the strength of a popular vote and not of a purely sectional one. We understand that an analysis of last year's vote shows quite an extraordinary state of affairs. Out of the two hundred and seventy votes cast no fewer than sixty are believed to have been registered by employees of the French Council, about the same number by representatives of the Missions in the Concession, and only the balance by independent ratepayers. The foreign ratepayers, as against the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.