WHAT IT COSTS TO GET TO WESTMINSTER.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12900, 10 February 1906, Page 3

WHAT IT COSTS TO GET TO WESTMINSTER.

A General Election (says a London paper) is tin expensive luxury, though the outlay is met by a few individuals. If the cost of -electing 670 Members of Parliament were borne entirely by the public, a million of money weald be .required from the national purse every time it suited tii;- plans of a Prime Minister to dissolve. It is true iliat a General Election does not cost so, much now as ait did in the bad old days when votes weie openly bought and sold. The- General Election of 1768, for instance, cost £2,000,000, and when Sheridan- returned' for "Staffordtwo" years before, he made an entry of his expenses thus: " 248 electors at 5 guineas each, £1302." "Even these citizens valued themselves lightly, for the average cost .of each vote given at the General Election which followed was £l9 15s od..

Tli* Corrupt Practices Act of : 1885 changed all .that- by setting., a strict limit to- the expenses •which a. candidate moglifc incur, the scale varying according to, the magnitude and conditions of the constituency. But even under tacse circumstances purses must ,bs opened widely, so that the judgment of the nation- may . be -declared. In the General Klection :-f 1892 there were loo< -candida:es, ;md the official return showed an average outlay by -each candidate ol\ over £7CO. . Three years later the 4,045,527 vjtes which , weie given cost- 3s BJd .• each; And in- 1900,. : when-.' .only voters toos the trouble to'gu to the,poll, tb:- amount of money spent,: according to the official was. £T77 S--389,: and ihe average* cost .per :vote was 4s 4d: . ■ : •:: '

Of course, tven this large expenditure do;srnui iepreseut' tae -Wiiwie or me outlay wnich ;t candidate must lace. \ Usually: lie nurses the constituency some time. as a. prospective candiaate boiore the. elec-: ROn begins, ana that is. -costly - (nubs,r-cuan-; U'ss, and institutions he is- expected 'to! contribute,' -ana he must iay: aowu iv sub-i stantiiii sum for the - maintenance of ti good oi-ganisatiun: • Lven when ne is - elected ne uiuit buy his popularity if he hopes* to 1 be returned.again, and many sosmbsrs 'iiav<9 protested patiietdcailv against tae T»-r vir-i----trUaiiy ievied upon. c.nem by tile demands for contributions to movements-Of' maoy kiiids withii'; their --cQnstititenii'ies. s --'it is impossible evto to estimate the'-amount spent in this way," but piobabiy it'would not; be an- exaggeration to doubie the official return ami to put -ihe cost'of the last appeal to the country At . a million and'-a half of money. 'l'nis sum was paid bv 1103 candidates. "

The distribution-of "the official half' oif the amount is very curious.. ■ ihe returningolficers' charges, torm v a jverjr heavy item," amounting to' £150,278"; —liTe-ballot papers, boxes,' dies, arid stationery c05t£15,544, and for 10,720 polling stations £24,540 was expended, wiiile more than £54,000 was paid t<> poUmg clerts. ; ■ The candidates' themselves paid £148,245 to : agents,'£24,GQo for cOTomittee-rooins, and - i» personal espenseis"f' but By "'fair'-the" largest' outlay was .that for printing, : advertising, staand postage, ' 'for.in this' way. £274,0(}p was spent. Compared with this item, $6 diotmeht of £i5,800 ats the colt of publ|c . ineetings is very triflihgl interesting, however^. to notice "that "the jnaii wji£ spent moist- on printing and advertising yery ..the seat.

The.cjieapest votes were, those .polled in the Irish boroughs,,; vifhere''«ackope cost only JQtes in English, lioronghs worked out at- 3s each, those 'in Scotch '• boroughs at 3s ■ 4d, and ihose in Welsh boroughs at 3s Bd.' Politics are cheap in Ireland, lot the expense' per ■ vote in the 'tfounties There was :l only "4s sd' ;a"vote, while in- Welsh counties it was 4s lOd, in Scotch counties 5s 7d, : and in English cotiiities 5s 9d. The frugal Scot riot mdujge has economical instinct at elec-tion-time,; foi- wheraas • the ■ : votes p6114d in'the '-whole of ScoSand-ih. 1900 ' costs 4s 7<J each) ! those polled in. England and. Wites .cost 4s:4d£'axiS' Qfose?4^. j *>, ifr John, Leigfiton,' who stood- foc St.;. -FaricrM-Vten'.' had the: 3is t iinction fef pacing more •• for | fiis anyone else has' done ' in- recent - for/their votes he had to pay £lO 9s A.% Jofen Sjti||d«Bjg date in East Bradford~ spent~only 14s 4d on his struggle, 'but the 111 voted" which he. reoeiyed wst him £2 3s 9d each, the highest- sum -paid that year. The smaller the constituency the greater ths cost per vote is a rule of fairly general! application; for Instance, Mr Horniman 'received only 1184 votes in Penxyn and Psa.mo^;^d,^oftf a.t a cost-.of £640 -10s 2d, ponent, w:ho:polle<l Qiyy twenty voites- oefcftr-' the member, paid brit"9s fij for tjitm;. ".TW" cheapest votes yere those cast fbrSir \V.' H. Hornby and Sir William Coddingtx>tt". •in - Blackburn, ; who spent 8d 9d ;respectively. per while their opponent j" Mr Philip Snowden,; spent- Is, for each of 7096 xotes.-

It is interesting to observe what- some of our leading statesmen have paid for tlie privilege of sitting in Parliament. Mr Balfour's official bill in East Manchester was £BB7, and his votes cost him 5s Id each, while Mr Chamberlain, who was unopposed, found a seat for tlie small ontlay of £62 16s 2d. The new Prime Minister had to pay £621 at Stirling, or 4s 7d a vote, and Mr Asquith induced the men °f__ Fife to Tet-Hrn' him for an ontlay of £053, or only 2s 8d a vote, while his opponent spent 6s 4d. The Labour men conduct their elections as cheaply as possible, and Mr Keir Hardie secured his return (or Is a vote, while Mabon's cost him Is 3d. Of Mr Keir Hardie's bill of £296 * ess *baa £175 went in returning j ofacers's charges: of the sum of £BB2 spent for Joan BurnsV fight iu. Battersea.! the r-eiurninjr officer took £167, and in Mr Burt's cnse me returning officerV fees were nearly half tlie bill. The largest sum paid by any single candidate in 1900 w;is that- of £2.155 disbursed by the Hon. L. Holland in Romford, tliouch Mr S. Storev and She XJf>ti. H-dwotth L,-;mbton spent together £2012 in fighting Newcastle-on-Tyne. And in both crises the money was spent m vain.

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