BRITISH ELECTION

Hokitika Guardian, 2 November 1932, Page 3

BRITISH ELECTION

1931 WAS CHEAPEST ON RECORD

AVERAGE VOTE COST SEVENI'E.NCE. - -i-k /

LONDON, September 15

The,Go-.eivl iAtciioii of last year, in ktepii.g With the urgent necessity for nat.oi.nl v eco-nwiny, w„s the clKiapest ■oh iVcord, bo far as t..e cost of vote \v as coat erned:

The total- expenses 'of candidates, accpra'ing to a White Pi per iust issued, amounted to only £654,105, little m..re tlu.n : half the total;'.of the p.tteaing election in •i5294-£dy213,507. . •As the votes polled numbered 21,6,6,3*3, every vote cast cost a little over -.ovcnp.nce, compared with about one shilling two yo.,rs earlier. :

In the London boroughs the expenses returned totalled £62,039 for 1,800,712 votes polled. Mirs Manning, the defeated Socialist candidate, in Islington Eat.t, ret.i.ned the largest' amount, £1422;- whi!l? the kmolLeet total was £l4, the co'i 'of Mr Duff Cooper’s unopposed resiiirn in the St. George’s Division of Wcstminrstcr. Tix Svotl ind,' the amounts were' £945 arid £OBO, spent by the two for the Central Divis.on of Aberdeen and Kincardine. But the distinction of- securing a' feat without the expenditure of,'a penny went to Ireland: Calgnel Thomas Sinclair b.iag" elected for Queen’s University, with. «. fceiain eromscs sheet.

The Prime Minister’s exher- f «s ih the Senbam Divi-ion were £1036, ard Mr Baldwin’s unopposed return cost him £143, wh : E Mr Neville C’aamberlal'n .speott £6ll, «V “Herbert Samuel £lOl6, Sir John" Simon £1243, Mr J. H. Thomas £1133, -and Mr Runciman £297'. ' T' /".'

■The ,Voiding survivor of the former Socialist Government,; Mr Tanslmry, nod +o pay rnlv-0223. while Mr -Arthur Henderson .spent £755 in lc&ing his seat.-

’ Mt T-leyd F>/'ree’s eymrs««! were £646. tbepe of his- daughters £615, and those of his son £1227, r -