The MP.'s Salary.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19145, 31 October 1927, Page 10

The MP.'s Salary.

When the representative of the Palinerston North Chamber of Commerce moved a resolution adverse to the suggested increase of salaries of members of Parliament, he said that there was no lack of competition for seats in the House of Representatives. This is perfectly true, and if he had added that there was no compulsion upon anyone to seek election, ho would have completed the case against higher salaries for members. In the discussion which, took place in the House on Friday night the member for Nelson described the present salary of the M.P. as "an inadequate, starving, "sweating wage," and that he would be willing to submit the matter to the Arbitration Court. Behind these statements one apprehends the idea that membership of the House of Representatives can rightly be regarded as one of many kinds of work at which a man may seek to make his livelihood. In fact, that is the actual belief of some members of Parliament. If this belief were ever to receive the support of a majority of the people, the

country would be assured of grossly incompetent and corrupt administration, for if membership of Parliament came to be accepted as a means of livelihood only those persons would seek election, or could be elected, whom a sane and healthy people would reject as professional political quacks. A man who seeks election either because he sincerely believes (whether mistakenly or not does not matter) that his being in Parliament will help the nation, or because he has deeply at heart any political cause, will not enquire what the wages are. Plis reward will be the ample one of power to make his opinions heard where opinions are most' important, of knowledge that causes which he cherishes are receiving his aid on the battlefield. Such men exist in all countries; there are not a few in our own House of Representatives; and if they are sincere and unselfish they would endeavour to enter Parliament even if there were no salary paid to members at all. The acid test for those politicians who agree with Mr Atmore —who perhaps does not realise the ultimate consei quences of his idea —can be very easily applied. Let the Government refuse to increase the salaries of members (and, if it is wise, it will refuse). Then every member who thinks the salary an " inadequate, starving, sweat- " ing wage" will naturally not offer himself for re-election. If he does seek re-election the country will understand that he thinks that after all the job of M.P. is better worth seeking than any other. Pew people will doubt that the members who are grumbling at their pay will show no reluctance to ask for the privilege of being "starved" and "sweated" again. It is a pity that the conference of Chambers of Commerce weakened its protest against liigher salaries for members of Parliament by making the ground of it "the present financial "stringency." Whether a country is hard up or bursting with prosperity, it cannot hut be an evil thing to admit, that political life should be regarded as a means of livelihood.