PARTY FUNDS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 874, 21 July 1910, Page 5

PARTY FUNDS.

o ■ AND LEGISLATIVE COUNCILLOR* ' SHIPS* A STABTLTNG SUGGESTION. Some rather startling suggestions in , regard to the Legislative Council were • made by Air. T, K Taylor, member for . . Ciiristcliurch .North, in Uie House last evening. Keferring to the distinction involved in a seat in the Upper House, ilr. Taylor suggested ironicauy that the Prime Minister might find it profitable to put up these distinctions at auction. (Laughter.) In that case, all legislative powers stiouid be taken i'rom lors, and the position should be made simply a distinction. There were thousands of men in New Zealand, and in i most other countries, who regarded it as I the whole goal of human effort to get on to a legislative body. They knew, that they had no capacity lor the work, and no convictions on any public question, but they desired the social distinction. Reliable information • was sometimes got from men who had been sacked from their billets, and 'he would like 'to know if any revenue was beiug derived by the Government from the sale of peerages in this country. If that was the case, instead of going into the hands of a party organisation such revenue should be made available for public purposes. It opened up a vista of public possibilities that was most fascinating. (Laughter,) Party Funds. Elaborating his. question, Mr. Taylor asked the Prime Minister whether any of the present members of the Upper House contributed to any party fund, and whether there really was in , Zealand a system under which some, not all, of the members of the Upper House contributed part or the whole of their honorarium to the party fumls controlled by the Ministry. • He ttSKud whether this arrangement took tha nature of a contract. He thought thafc anything that would bring" discredit on a useless institution had a right to be • * j Drought forward in the House. If .tho • country knew that some of th© legislators wbo had the final power of veto . practically paid for the privilege which . they 1 enjoyed in hard cash, he believed that the country would say, ""Well, let : us have the cosh straight out. Lot us : look upon it na revenue/' Any money derived from the sale of political, dis- . tinctions should certainly be the property • of the State. If this system was developed it might be a valuable thing to providu power for creating counts, viscounts, minor peerages, and even dukes. Ho wished to know "whether the position of Legislative Councillor has been so degraded as to have become a matter of barter. We know-that it so at Homo. . He was given to understand that some/ past members of the Upper House would have been quite willing to give more of ■ their honorariums, and if the_ exact terms were known, many ex-Councillors would gladly go back and give their political services without fee or reward. Prime Minister's Denial. , The Prime Minister, in replying, said he had never known any man appointed to the Legislative Council who . had bought .his way to that position. He had no barter with any member of the Legislative Council, and knew, of none ; In his time. He. had never personally . received any contribution from a mem-' ber of the Upper House for any consideration so far as tho Government or a political party was concerned. Any man was entitled in. that or the other House to ■ give a contribution to. party fundi so long as he did it honourably, - and he did not want any man to assist them directly or indirectly under, pressure, or in the expectation of receiving any appointment from the Government, 1 . Mr. Massey's Remarks. Touching upon Mr. .-Taylor's remarks Air. Massey said that ha considered some of them to. be very pertinent. Ho himself had heard it stated that one member was appointed, because he had in- . vested some of his spare cash in a paper which supported the Government. (The Prime Minister: Thafs_jiot so.) This ; statement he had heard so'often that ono was beginning to believe that there was something in it. ' Mr. Fisher: Ask the Minister for Kail- . ways if' he knows anything about it? 1 Mr. Massey said that as late as 1898 a member of the Council had told him that as he understood' it Councillors were put in for the purpose of passing, the . policy measures of the Government; that for the first year they did that conscientiously, but from that period onwards they began to exercise a discretion which they ought not to exercise. Mr. T. E. Taylor: That is part of >the bargain. LI Mr. Mas?ey: .Tho gentleman is in the Council now.