The Evening Star FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2593, 9 June 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 1871.

Payment of members is one of the difficulties with which, our parliaments, Colonial and Provincial, have to deal. We have just had one wordy fight over this question. We know members of the Provincial Council do not like that good plain English term, and to hide from themselves and the public the whole truth, they have put it into a Latin dress and styled, it honorarium. There is something rather droll in adopting such a title, the primary meaning of which is a free gift. It reminds one of the Rian, who, after resolving to give a sum of money to the poorest person he knew,, sagely arrived at the conclusion to give it to himself, on the ground that, if he knew one poorer than himself ho pitied him. Our Council started its new career with very economical ideas. The necessity for reducing expenses was foreshadowed in its first days, and has been acknowledged more or less every day since ; and how are they going about it ? First, they turn a ministry out that had labored for weeks to master the necessary details for carrying on the ■ work of the session. This has caused -delay, as those who are put into their places have to go through the work again and to construct their own system, based upon narrower experience and more imperfect investigation. Next they set to to value their own services —to fix for themselves this daily fee which the public are to imagine they (the publid) bestow upon their representatives so freely and ungrudgingly. What Mr Cargill intended .to propose we do not know : we have heard it was to have been a fixed sum, liased upon a fair estimate of how long the work of the session ought to occupy. We believe had this plan been adopted, the session, instead of just beginning, would have been half over by this time. The Province would have known the exact annual cost of.the. deliberations of the Council. Mr Shepherd would have curtailed the length of his speeches, and some of our agricultural members would hare found out that they could employ their time to more advantage on their farms. But this would not have suited our Provincial notions of economy. We ar© bound to believe those honorable members who consider five guineas a week too small a sum for their personal- expenses during session, and quite regret that the exigencies of politics draw them from their more profitable np-country occupations. If they would only get through their Work like other people they would very soon be able to go home again, and the country would save by their leaving many laws untouched that will work ; very well if they are only let alone. But let us look at this honorarinm ; question-a libtle-eloserp and - see how it is likely to .work. .The cost to the ; Province of its Provincial Council dur- ! mg the last two years has - been pretty heavy considering that all that they then so ungracefully opposed, they are now so wisely and gracefully supporting. We arrive, therefore, at the conclusion that the greater part of that time was wasted in trying to do wrong. But that Council voted its honorarium at one pound per day, with travelling expenses; <fec. Very extravagant! and our new Council says, “We will “ set a good example, and whereas the “ obstructive Council spent its time in “ doing badly at the rate of a pound “ a day, we, who are progressive will “ do our good work for fifteen shillings “ a day.” But seine ill-natured people have been studying arithmetic lately, and in working one of their multiplication questions they have found out > that assuming the sessions of this Council to continue as long as the last, the cast, at fiffeeen shillings a day, will, because of all members receiving it) be something like four hundred pounds annually in- excess of the cost of the last Council. Rather a promising beginning this for a Province with a bankrupt exchequer. But then our legislation is to be more perfect. It Will not do for honorable members to bo,..continually bickering about tins honorarium—so they are going to do the thing famously this time ; and having had one fight over it which lasted several days, they are going to have another by making.it the subject of an Ordinance —which; if necessary, might have been done at first. Then Mr Barton is not content with the limited range of persons, trades, and professions of those from whom the members of the House of Representatives are chosen. Ho evidently wants to give » chance of election to Mr Grant or Mr Graham, or perhaps Mr Stout, or, for aught we J know* some up-country Andrew MarYZht, whoso marvellous talent rju!

sterling honesty have never been tainted with the smell’ of a sheep or cattle ran. So ho proposes to save by adding .£1250 a year to our expenses for paying to each Otago member of the House of Representatives a real honorarium of £l5O. We shall be curious to see how much this resolution, carried or not carried, and, if carried, the subsequent Ordinance, will cost the Province at fifteen shillings a day for eich member during its discussion. Fourteen days have already passed since the Council met, and the gro part of the time has been taken up with political dodgery and personal questions. Instead of a common effort to take steps to relieve the Province from its financial difficulties, that everlasting land question is to be made a party fight; and so this session will be lengthened out until it may prove more costly than any that has preceded it.