PAYMENT OF MEMBERS BILL.

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 51, 15 October 1892, Page 2

PAYMENT OF MEMBERS BILL.

[TO THE EDITOB OF THE STAB.j Siu, — I have always been ia favour of the present Ministry siuce they came into office, because, I think, they have done some good, and I have for that reason, always read their paper, the New Zealand Times. But when I see they are so weak as to let themselyes be led by the , nose by the-socalled Liberal Labor Members, in such a grabbish measure ' as this Payment of Members Bill, I have j crossed the floor, (as Mr Fish said last year) and am now heart and soul with the Opposition, as I hope and believe thousands of my fellow working men will be, and they will not permit themselves to be lead by the nose at the next geneial election to put such selfish grabbers of the public money into Parliament. Now, sir, you know I am a poor working man, and nobody has asked me to write this, but I can have no peace in my mind until I have spoken out to my fellow working men, and warned them. Just fancy, a poor tailor, bootmaker, or carpeuter saying they do not get enough with £150 each, for sitting in a comfortable house, listening to others talking nonsense, or sometimes standing up for a few minutes when they think they must say something clever, a few hours work per day, free trip in thesHinemoa, banqueting, free first class railway travelling on the Colony's railways ! Verily ! you handicraftsmen are getting big and proud since you came into the Parliamentary building. Between £40 and £50 per month was not enough for you, so you voted yourselves between £60 and £70 per month, and you had, if I remember right, £100 besides the £160, that was £250 the first year of this Parliament. The £100 of the £250 was for about a week or two weeks attendance. Now you can go home proud like conquering heroes. You get £240 next year, so you can afford to spend £'10 in beer on the fools who put you in and say: ''Come along Jackson or Johnson, have a drink old boy, Long life to you, and do not forget to put me on the top of the poll next election. We will close the shops for you and factories at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, give you three half holidays each j week, compel shopkeepers to have cbairs and couches for you to rest on, and put our nose into everybody's business, which is the freedom of New Zealand. Good by. Ah ! how nice it will be to go to the Post Office every month and take £20 and put them into your pockets, all for doing nothing. I am a legislator, now my wages of sin are protected too. If I turn msolyent and the Devil take the scissors, needles, pressing iron, plane and last for all I care. The Po?t says the cost to the ratepayers will be for 99 gentlemen exclusive of Miuisters £20,000, but it should be £23,700, at £240 each, if all get £240 and if the Great Liberal Ministry is going to appoint 12 more craftsmen to the Council. They never take off a penny of customs duty for us poor people in tea, sugar, and beer, and hundreds of unemDloi ed in distress in Dunedin, Ohristchurch, and elsewhers. It is wouderfnl to see from the voting how conciliatory the old Legislatiye Councillors have been since the settlement of the Council appointments. How will it be when the Government appoints 12 more to their party ? There is no doubt vow but what the Council will be swamped, and if I was Governor, I would stop that game, cost what it may. I would resign first, and write a memorandum to the next Governor to do the same, as Lord Onslow did. There is no doubt now that the Governors are right, and more far seeing than most of us. And Sir Geo. Grey too, in his old age, and near the grave, voted himself £240 ? I never could believe that, and Mr Fish and Mr Fisher too ? Mr Fish if I remember right, was put in on the Liberal ticket. At all events, he was a so-called Liberal last year, until that memorable day he lost the chairmanship of committees with £400 or so a year. This year I have seen he has been tooth and nail against the Government. They took very good care to wait till the last moment of the session to hurry through their grabbing Bill, so that the people would have no time to protest ; but the Opposition did their duty. I must say they have got a weapon against those Liberals, which both sides will remember in the future. I am, &c, Fair Play,