The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1912 HIGH FINANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 92, 4 September 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1912 HIGH FINANCE.

In the fulness of its heart, Parliament, having undertaken to send a number of aspiring candidates for political honors to a second ballot, undertook to reimburse them for their expenses up to the sum of £SO. A return presented to Parliament last week shows liow this money was spent. The return is an extremely interesting one and in its way is quite a little study in a. side-line on character. Its most prominent characteristic is the neat and graceful way in which most of the second balloters managed to bring their expenses within reasonable distance of the maximum of £SO. The making up of a return of expenses is always an [ art in itself, even with the help of those delightfully vague assistants, "cabs," "stamps" and "miscellaneous." By some extraordinary coincidence three gentlemen—Messrs A. W. Hogg, J. McCombs and I. H. Simson—actually expended the exact £SO, and this must speak volumes | for the intelligence of the House in fixing this amount as the possible expense of a fortnight's campaigning, even though the accounts arc nrt subject to a Government audit and arc thus free from the possibility of being loaded with that bugbear of local bodies, "the tag." Mr. J. Payne is content with £47 7s 6d, which he judiciously condenses into four items, thus establishing a record for brevity. Mr. R. B. Ross has all the instincts of the conductor of a drapery sale when lie returns his little payment as £49 10s lid, but lie made a grave oversight in omitting the extra %d, which would have made his account much wore convincing and picturesque. Mr. F. M. B. Fi.-her, in a quite inexplicable fit of generosity, presented the taxpayers with 3d, bv only expending a judicious sum of £4!) 19s 9d. There are thirty candidates who managed to climb nicely over :C4!t. and thirty-seven more modestly kept their expenditure in the neighboihood of £4S. Then come an economical body of forty-one, about 08 per cent, of the candidates, who claimed £47 with a few odd shillings and pence, included probably to lend "an air of verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative." Mr. R. Moore, (lie defeated candidate for the Kaiapoi seat, set a noble example of thrift and economy by 'only expending

£l3 15s Gd, thus beating Mr. T. H. Davcy, popularly known as the 'Old Hoss," by a three-and-threepenny neck, for the member for Christehurch East drew a cheque for only £l4 12s 3d. Mr. J. A. Hanan and Mr. I. Duncan are the only other candidates who managed to keep their expenditure under £2O. Only eighteen candidates are recorded as paying for "motor hire," but Mr. R. A. Wright displayed some ingenuity and a very proper recognition of the value of scientific accessories in political campaigning by doling out £1 5s for the ''making of phonograph records, etc." Mr. F. M. B. Fisher, despite his heavy expenses in other directions, only spent 5s on "motors and cabs," and he is evidently a staunch believer in the health value of pedestrianism. far as printing and advertising are concerned, the Labor members were the largest contributors to this industry, with the exception of Mr. J. T. Hogan, the Liberal candidate for Wanganui, who recklessly devoted £43 7s 5d to "expenditure on advertising and typewritten matter." Mr. A. Harris, however, beats this record with the remarkable expenditure of £49 10s 16d, a tenpenny sin for which the Government Printer is probably responsible. The total amount available for second ballot candidates was £ 3000, and of this amount £2683 4s was claimed. This speaks volumes either for the acumen of the House that framed the estimated expenses or the acament of the candidates who claimed them: the public can judge which.