WHAT A GENERAL ELECTION COSTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 983, 1 March 1910, Page 7

WHAT A GENERAL ELECTION COSTS.

It is officially stated, on tha authority of returns solemnly made by every parliamentary candidate and election agent in the land, that the cost of the general election of 190G was £1,16G,858. This is supposed to include everything, from the printing of the ballot papers to the cost of every halfpenny stamp used in a village committee room. There were 1,273 candidates. On an average each one incurred an election expenditure of about £9OO. But there were only 679 seats to le filled, and the cost of electing each member, therefore, was something like £1,740.'

It seems a heavy price to pay for the purpose of sending a representative to Westminster. But it is nothing to the price that is really paid when all is reckoned in. It comprises all the recognised items of expenditure incurred by a candidate, his agent, and the returning officer. It ignores the imney spent by the numerous political organisations, of all colours, which take an energetic part in every election and spend money Jike water but are outside the limits of technical "agency" because they never fight for a particular candidate, but only for a permanent principle i f policy. At times the plain man rr.ay not be able to distinguish the differ ence. But the courts do. The money they spend on posters and literature, on fees and expenses for speakers, and on propaganda generally does not come into the returns of election expenditure, and there is no material on which to be an estimate of its amount. But I have never met an experienced eleciio.i eerer who at less than half a million sterling, and some put it higher. THE CANDIDATE'S EXPENDITURE.

The candidate, on the other land, is not supposed to pay anything at all. It is his money that is sner.t. but he must not disburse it. When the late Colonel North was a candid cate, his agent made him emoty his pockets every morning, lest in some burst of thoughtless generosity he should lay himself open to a charge of buying votes* Immediately the candidate is adopted he opens an account in a loi al bank and empowers his agent to draw upon it. It must be a substantial amount, otherwise it will very soon need refreshing. And there is a very early call upon it. Un nomination day the returning officer demands from each candidate a guarantee for his share of the official election expenses, and he expects the money in good, crisp banknotes. Once he gets the money the agent becomes a most particular financier. He likes to have at his command all that he is authorised to spend. This can be ascertained with some accuracy. He knows the maximum amount that the returning officer can charge, for that is set out in a schedule; he knows how much be is allowed to spend himself, for that depends upon the number of electors. In a constituency of 20,000, for instance, he can spend up to £920 if it is'a borough ana up to £1,790 if it is a county division, and the returning officer's charges are set out in a precise though rather complicated scale. But he most also keep an eye on the candidate's persona! expenditure. True, that is outside all maximums, and is not often questioned, but if it exceeds £IOO the extra bills must be paid by the agent and he must return vouchers for them, just as if they were bills for posters or stamps.

THE AGENT'S DELICATE TASK. The agent has a delicate task before him. His candidate always wants to be doing something novel: '•The other side are flooding the division with this circular in three colours. Why don't we send one out in five colours?" and so on. It is all very well, but the agent has to be certain that he can make ends meet at the finish, and he must always keep something in reserve for an emergency or a big final splash. He is quite willing to spend the last halfpenny, only he does not want to spend a halfpenny too much.

Ihe main heads of expenditure in j th 3 1906 election were:— Clerks and messengers 129,752 Priming, advertising, stationery, postage and telegrams 418,296 Committee rooms 45,837 Miscellaneous 71,371 Personal expenses 64,054 Returning officers' charges 207,937 'lhe number of votes given was 5,6451,04, and on an average they cost 4s IJd each. In England and Wales the average was 4s Id, in Scotland 4s 6d, and in Ireland 3s BJd; an English county vote cost 5s Id, a borough vote 3s; and a university vote 2s sd. Throughout the United Kingdom the' most precious votes were those cast for Mr Murray Spenser Richardson at Sevcnoaks. There were not many of them —fortyfour was the exact number—but they cost Mr Richardson £l3 8s 6d each. He was entitled to spend £1,610, and he spent £590. Now in Portsmouth, where Mr Sanders was entitled'to spend £1,220, the 8,172 votes given for him eost only sixpence each.