January 6, 1868

TORONTO CITY ELECTIONS TODAY

We reported incorrectly a few days ago that the city elections for Toronto were to be held on January 1. They are, in fact, being held today.

The polls will open at 9 am and close at 5 pm. There is just one day of voting.

The challenge to Mayor Smith in St. John’s Ward has dissipated with both of his nominated opponents — former Mayor Francis Medcalf and Dr. W. T. Aikens — withdrawing from the race.

The Globe is hopeful that recent reforms to the municipal election law will improve voter interest in the contested races.

FÊTE OF THE EPIPHANY

Today is a legal holiday in Québec to mark the fête of the Three Kings. All courts, banks, and other public offices are closed.

MASS STARVATION IN SWEDEN

The Globe republishes a letter from W. W. Thomas Jr. of Portland, Maine, lately the United States representative in Sweden who writes that the devastation in that country is worse than has been reported:

Three hundred thousand hard-working patient Swedes are starving in Norland. Their crops for three years have been bad; last year they were an utter failure; and even now their miserable bread, made of straw and the bark of trees, has given out. They sit in their cheerless huts and die.

Mr. Thomas’ letter was addressed to the American Secretary of State William Seward asking him to commission a ship to be filled with foodstuffs donated by the American people and sent to Sweden to alleviate the suffering of the Scandinavians.

PARLIAMENTARY REPORTING PRIVILEGED: LORD CHIEF JUSTICE

The libel case of Watson versus Walter has come to a close in London with a ruling that a correct reporting of Parliamentary proceedings is privileged. Newspaper editors in Canada breathe a sigh of relief with this verdict as it appears possible our own Parliament and provincial assemblies will rely on the newspapers for their official records.