§ VISCOUNT MAHONasked the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, In the event of the Parliamentary and Municipal Elections Bill becoming Law, from what source in the first instance would the cost of the ballot-boxes be defrayed?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER, in reply, said, the cost of ballot-boxes in municipal contests would be defrayed, according to the Bill, out of the borough fund, as the present expenses were. In Parliamentary elections the cost would be governed by the present law, and would fall upon the candidate. This was in accordance with the decision arrived at by the House at the end of last Session. He did not think it necessary to anticipate the decision of the House upon the 1527 Motion of his hon. Friend the Member for Brighton (Mr. Fawcett) that the cost should he defrayed out of the rates. He had already stated that he was strongly in favour of that proposition. With regard to the second part of the noble Lord's Question, as to what the cost might be, he could not answer it, as no Notice had been given of it, and he did not know that, if Notice had been given, he could have answered it.
§ SIR JAMES ELPHINSTONEWill the ballot-boxes remain the property of the candidates?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTERThat is a difficult legal Question, and I am not prepared to answer it. I think they would be as much the property of the candidates as the hustings on which the hon. and gallant Gentleman stood at Portsmouth were the property of him and the other candidates.