THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8254, 6 October 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1906.

The financial position of the Labour Party in the Imperial Parliament mu3t be causing its organisers a groat deal of anxiety if, as stated in a re cent cablegram, tho expenditure for the current yoar is likely to be more than £2,000 in exoe&s of the inoome. lint, properly managed, the movement should easily become selfsupporting. 'lhe Labour Representation Committee ia supported by Unions and Societies having a total membership of 900,000, and the committee's funds are drawn from the contributing bodies on ":he basis of 30a per thousand members for working expenses and Id pnr member Der annum for parliamentary purposes. The inoome of the oommittee should thus be roughly £5,000 a yoar. Explaining tho position [in a magazine aitiole n few months ago, Mr Keir Hardie, the party leader, said that the penny rate was fixed only tentatively, and evidently it has already been found neoessary to double it. Tho affiliated organisation whioh proposes a oandidate for Parliament: makes itself responsible for the entire cost ot the election oonteat, and such salary aa it may agree to pay him if returned to Parliament, so that the committee's liability is limited. The method of raising the money varies; Some

Trade Unions, like the Miners',' impose a fixed levy for political purposes of Is a year upon their members, whilst others vote the money from tre ordinary fund of the Union. If all the Tra3e Unionists in Great Britain, some 2,250,000 in number, were to contribute a shilling a year-each to a political fund, they would have the useful sum of £112,500 a year to work with. The Miners' Federation, wbioh maintains its own representatives opart from the labour .Representation Committee, can onur?t on a political fund supported by its 320,000 members at a subscription of la a year each. The Party cleaily need never fail for luck of funds. Where such hugo numbers of men are being organised an enormous fund can bo raised by means of a very trifling individual subsorip. fciou. And if the 2,500,000 Trades Unionists would join hands with the 2,000,000 members of cooperative societies, the united workors could have the largest campaign fund in Great Britain.