Cost of an English Election.

Auckland Star, Volume XII, Issue 3540, 10 December 1881, Page 3 (Supplement)

Cost of an English Election.

In forty-two English and Welsh boroughs, the legally legitimate disbursements of the candidates exceeded £5,000. More than twice that amount was spent in contesting York; in Southwark the expenditure reached £15,570 ; in Lambeth it came to £18,272 ; and Manchester was only won and lost at a cost to the contending of £20,540. Six candidates for the suffrages of the 24,042 electors of the city of London expended £13,507, nearly £10,000 more than it cost to elicit the opinion of the 27,000 voters of Edinburgh, the exact expenditure there being £3,002, while Dublin, with 16,599 electors, extracted £5,711 from the pockets oMts political wooers. Glasgow proved the costliest of the Scottish burghs, the election charges coming to £14,584 ; Kilmarnock followed at a respectful distance with £6,079 ; Dundee and Ayr being the only other burghs in which the expenditure exceeded £5,000. Belfast election cost -£11,174, that of Down county £12,170, and that of Antrim county £14,416. Argyllshire is the one Scotch county credited or discredited with coating aspirants for its representation above £10,000, thereby emulating the example of no fewer than 33 English and Welsh county constituencies. On five of these 33 constituencies the expenditure amounted to more than £20,000. In South Essex £20,057 was spent; in Montgomeryshire, £20,094; in South Durham, £22,088; in Nortli Durham, £22,723; and in South Bast Lancashire, £25,782. This being the largest sum set down in the record, it is well, perhaps to note how the money went. Here are the items; Returning officer's charges, £1,254 19s 4d; agents, clerks, messengers, and canvassers, £4,592 4s 6d; hire of conveyances, £7,148 Gs; printing and advertising, £9,466 lls lOd; all other expenses, £4,220. Total, £25,782 Is Bd.— Chambers's Jonnud.