NOT FIXING THEIR OWN SALARIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 31, 11 December 1950, Page 5

NOT FIXING THEIR OWN SALARIES

M.Ps in New "Zealand are no longer to fix their own salaries. The task is to be done on the recommendation of a Royal Commission. A somewhat curious system has therefore been eliminated. At present members have their worth fixed at £750 a year, which includes a sum of £250 for expenses. There are certain deductions for absence from Parliament. Members also get privileges when they travel. Moreover, a fairly comprehensive superannuation scheme is in vogue. A member with nine years’ service gets a retiring allowance of £250 a year. This allowance increases by £25 a year ' for every year’s service above that period until a maximum of £4OO a year is reached after service for 25 years. A member, however, must be 50 years of age before he is entitled to this retiring allowance. For this they pay £SO a year, but can claim a refund when ceasing to be a member. The widow of a member who dies in harness gets twothirds of the retiring allowance to which her husband ymuld have been entitled had he retired instead of dying. There are, moreover, certain plums in the parliamentary world. Mr Speaker gets £IOOO a year plus an allowance of £IOO a session and free quarters. The Chairman of Committee gets £750 a year plus £l5O to cover expenses. The pay of the Prime Minister £IBOO a year, and of other Ministers £ll7O a year. Those Ministers who do not occupy a ministerial residence are paid an alowance of £2OO a year. New Zealand has always been an exponent of payment of members. The very first members in the very first parliament gave themselves £1 a day expenses. In 1884 this was raised to what was virtually a salary of £2lO ? session, or £l4O if the member lived within three miles of Wellington. This may explain why the Lower Hutt and -even the Eastern Bays took on a new significance. In 1887 the pay was £IOO a session plus an allowance of £SO a year for those in the three-mile limit. In 1892 they raised their pay to £240, and in 1904 to £3OO. In 1920 it became £SOO. Apart from cuts during the slump, it remained at this figure until in 1944 the present rate was instituted. New Zealand has held different views from those in Britain regardin this. Members of the British House of Commons were not paid until 1911, when they voted 'themselves £4OO a year. This was increased to £IOOO a year in 1946.