THE PRICE OF VOTES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 59, 22 February 1912, Page 4

THE PRICE OF VOTES.

A Home file contains some very interesting figures regarding the election expenses of candidates for various seats in the House of (lomnious. It will be seen that dm pi ice per vote paid by the average political aspirant is by no means small and the absence of cash may thcrelcra be. taken as a heavy handicap when it comes to wooing the electors. I roil) information to hand we leain that the last genera! election cost the Government £187.752. The number of persons entitled to vote totalled 7.691,741 ; there were 13.6G9 pollingbooths in 8601 separate districts. The return of candidates expenses supplies -.come interesting figures. For the 6“0 seats there wen- 1192 candidates, whose aggregate pay - meats wete £978,312, giving an average cost of 3/8 for each of the 5.235,323 votes polled, the expenses of uncontested elections not being reckon’d in the ascertainment of this average. The cost of the elections to the candidates in the various divisions of th" United Kingdom was as follows :— ENGLAND AND WALES. Candi- Cost per dates. Seats. Gross cost. vote. 916 495 £833,336 3 8 SCOTLAND. 134 72 £106.671 3 7 IRELAND. 142 103 £33,304 3/3

English county seats were the most costly to contest. They worked at 4/8 per vote, while the boroughs cost only 2,5. Welsh county votes cost 4'- and borough votes 2 9. Scottish county candidates paid 4/3 per vote, and borough candidates 2/9. In the Irish counties 3/7 was the cost of a vote, and in the boroughs 2’4 was sufficient. Candidates on the women’s suffrage ticket g ■’ smal encouragement and the £2 \ rtes east for Mr. 11. L. Jacobs m St. Pancras East cost him no less than £l7 1,6 each, while £9 11’4 .vas the average, cost of the 35 votes g-.en to Mr. W. J. Mirrleos, wtio bottomed the list of four candidates for the Cainlachie Division of Glasgow. Th? next highest average is to be found in Ireland, where £1 5.T1 was the cost of each of the 624 votes given by the electors of Birr, King’s County, to Mr. F. Ryan, the defeated candidate ; 24 - per vote was paid fcr the 87 votes secured by Mr. A. McLeod, who was defeated iby Mr. R. L. Harmsworth in the Caithness Division; 18 8 was the i average cost cf th? 452 votes secured by Air. T. B. Cronin, the defeated O’ Brienite in the South Kerry contest. Even the Socialists were not free from expenditure, and Air. Harry Hope. the successful candidate for Buteshire, paid 11-1 per vote for his total of £1569. Several unsuccessful candidates exceeded this figure. Air Victor | Grayson paying 11 11 per vote* for j his defeat in Colne Valley. The ‘cheapest successes were those of Air j.Jn?. Paker. junior memkr for Ha'iifax. and Air. Ramsay AlacDonald. 1 who each averaged 6d per vote. The I coast ituency containing the largest | number of electors was the Southern i or Romford. Division of Essex, with ! 53.<Vt2, of whom 40.969 voted, the I average cost of the 22,110 electors I who voted for the successful candi|date. Sir J. H. Bethell, being 4 1. I and of the 18.8-50 who a cted fcr Air I W. P. Griggs 4 8. smallest coni stituency was Kilkenny, with 1.742

electors. for which Mr. P.at rn-k O'Brien was returned tumpposed The largest borough com-tituem y was Newcastle-o’i-Tyne (two members), with 38.534 electors. The largest single borough election was Wandsworth, with 38.523 electors, -.-. f whom 25.722 voted, the average co-t of the 15,168 votes recorded for tn<--uccessful candidate being I 11. ami of the 10.554 wlio voted for Mr. Jas Fairbairn 2 6 The smallest county constituency in England was Ri - lain!, with 4128 electors, of whom 2.536 voted ; in Wales. Radnorshire, with 5 971, of whom 4106 voted; «;i Scotian d. S u th erlan d sh i r e. w n 1) 3055. of whom 2741 voted; and Is - land, North Longford with 3632 electors. where Air. J. P. Farrell was un opposed.