HUGE COST ENTAILED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20254, 14 May 1929, Page 9

HUGE COST ENTAILED.

HIGHEST FOE 46 YEARS.

EXPENDITURE PERMISSIBLE.

NEW REGISTER OF ELECTORS.

The large number of new electors, principally women, added to the British register this month will make the coming general election the most expensive since the passing of the Corrupt Practices Act of 1883.

Before that Act there was little or no check on the expenditure of candidates.. At the 1880 election the expenditure was officially returned at £1,736,781. Then, of course, the total electorate was only about one-tenth of what it will be this year. The last general election, in 1924, cost £921,165. By a recent Act the amount which a candidate may spend was, in view of the enlargements of the electorate, reduced to 6d per head of the electorate in county divisions and 5d per head in boroughs. Iu addition, there are allowed the salary of an election agent up to £75 in county divisions and £SO in boroughs, and the personal expens.es of a candidate up to £IOO. £65,000 for Liberal Party Posters.

A recent estimate of the total electorate on the new register was rather more than 27,000,000. The revised lists on May 1 showed the women to be in a majority of 2,250,000. On a fair assumption that half of the electors are in county divisions and half in boroughs, the maximum permissible expenditure by the candidates of all parties (assuming a three-cornered- contest in all cases) would be approximately £2,200,000.

To this would have to be added the expenses of returning officers, poll clerks, hire of halls for polling booths and other incidental expenses. These are fixed by Treasury scale and paid by the Treasury out of the taxpayers' money. A sum of £250,000 is already included for the purpose in the Estimates of the year. The combined total expenditure legally permissible is therefore nearly £2,500,000 as the direct cost of electing a new Parliament.

Additions must be made for the costs already borne by the great central political organisations for the printing of posters, pamphlets, and other literature. The amount of this expenditure is never fully disclosed, but some idea of the sum involved may be found in the lact that a few months ago the Liberal Party placed an order for £65,000 for election posters.

It is expected that the Conservative and Liberal candidates, assisted from the immense resources of their party funds, will spend up to the maximum in almost every constituency. The Labour Party is, for reasons of enforced economy, budgeting for an average expenditure of £450 in each contest. Large Increases in Voters. The following messages from Daily Mail correspondents early last month gave details regarding the new registers of voters in five large centres: — Reading.—The new register contains the names of 62,800 electors, an increase of 13,600. Women voters have been increased by approximately 12,600, and it is estimated that they outnumber men by almost 5000. Norwich.—The new register will contain the names of approximately 38,000 men voters and 44,000 women, an increase of 15,000 in the case of women and 2500 in the case of men. Bristol. —There is an increase in the electorate of 55,100, of whom 43,500 are women. The numbers on the register now are 258,800. Bournemouth.—The new register contains 67,000 names, an increase of 21,000. It is estimated that of the new electors 20,000 are women and that the proportion of women to men voters is now two to one. In Poole there are 7695 new voters, of which it is estimated only 700 are men. Portsmouth.—The new register shows that the number of voters has increased by about 29,000, mostly women. The total number of voters is 149,601. More Men Standing Than Women. When the last mail left London the small number of women candidates was one of the surprising features of the coming election. The Conservatives then had eight, the Liberals 22, and Labour expected to have 50. The last figure appeared unlikely of even approximate realisation.

At its best, therefore, the total number of women aspirants to the title of M.P. did not at that time exceed 80, divided among three parties contesting 615 seats.

Allowing for constituencies where only two parties arc fighting—and these are not likely to bo many—the men candidates outnumbered the women by at least 20 to one. This was not because there were not plenty of capable women available as candidates, and not because of any discouragement of them by the chief party organisers. It was simply because, in the main, constituency committees had declined to consider women as candidates, and the women members of those committees had been more hostile than the men. Many Female Political Workers. There was a different tale, however, with regard to women as political workers. Whether as speakers, organisers, or canvassers they were in immense demand throughout the country. All three parties havo devoted special departments to training women workers, and the political agents say they are generally keener and as canvassers certainly more reliable than men.

No constituency organisation now is regarded as complete without a woman official who ranks only second to the agent in control of the organisation. In some cases women agents are in full control.

For some time tho Conservatives have been conducting classes and examinations for women workers' in different parts of the country, and those who pass the examinations, which deal with organi sation, registration, canvassing, and election law, receive certificates of proficiency.

A very large number of women have thus been certificated and are now attached to area organisations.

Miss Mnrjorio Maxse is tho chief Conservative wonion's organiser and has been receiving great assistance from Mrs. Bridgeman, the wife of the First Lord of the Admiralty.