M.P.'S ALLOWANCE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 138, 7 December 1929, Page 11

M.P.'S ALLOWANCE

MAKING ENDS MEET

DEFENDED BY EX-MEMBER

That the payment of the £100 bonus to members of Parliament was entirely justified from every point of view was the opinion expressed ...to a "Christchurch Star" reporter by Mr. P. C. Webb, who represented Grey, in the House of from 1913 to 1918. Mr. Webb declared that members of Parliament were the lowest paid servants of the community in proportion to the work they were called upon to do, and, instead of the bonus being for one session only, he considered that it should be permanently added to the Parliamentary honorarium. "While I was in the House," he remarked, "I realised just how hard it was for a Member of Parliament to live on his salary. I was a single man, and did not spend anything on drink, yet I was invariably ' stony, broke' before the end of each month. Few people realise the enormous number of calls made upon the purse of a Member of Parliament. He has to assist people who are in desperate straits almost every day, and is put to a good deal of expense travelling about in the interests of his constituents. He is called upon to head all sorts of su,bscrip-1 tion lists, and if he. has a, family de-! pendent upon him it is a continual! struggle trying to make both ends j meet. In fact, Members of Parliament who have incomes independent of their Parliamentary honoraria have more! than once told me' thaf they felt they i would liave to leave political life because of the continual strain on their i resources." Mr .^ Webb said he found among both! the Liberal and tho Reform parties no I division of opinion regarding the jus-1 tification for an increase in the honor- j arium for Members of Parliament, and it was only for purely political reasons that any objection was made to the granting of an increase. It had to be remembered that a good proportion of the honorarium of a Member was spent at election times in fighting to retain his seat, and while he was in the House he had to keep two homes going during the session. "With regard to the country constituencies, Mr, Webb said he felt that an additional allowance should be made for travelling expenses. Even if the bonus was made permanent, the members would still be poorer at the end of the year than the great majority of those who criticised them/-While he was working in the mines on the West Coast he was far better off financially than ho was when, he was elected to Parliament, and his own experience in the House was that there was absolute justification for the payment of -the bonus. • .-'■,