The Premier's Little Bill.

Manawatu Herald, 26 October 1897, Page 2

The Premier's Little Bill.

This it what the. Parliamentary correspondent of the Otago Daily Time* says : " A good deal of attention is now being devoted to the question of Ministerial travelling expenses. The Premier's little bill this year will be : Travelling allowance for attending Diamond Jubilee, £1750; salary, £1000; travelling allowance for conference of Premiers at Hobart, £518 ; salary Assets Board, £250; free house, equal to £200; and ordinary travelling allowance, say, £800. This makes a total of over £4000. On considering these figures it must be remembered that the Premier and his family lived free of cost in Londou at the Hotel Oeoil, and it is also stated that he received a free passage to America and on. the Transcontinental railway. In addi tion to all these perquisites it must be remembered that the Premier is a Balaried officer of the Anglo-Continental Mining Syndicate. The salary he receives for this has never been allowed so transpire. It is possible, too, that his ordinary travelling expenses are more than £300, but there is no getting at the actual figure, for it is wrapped up in the lump sum of £1048 allowed to Ministers for travelling, and about .which there is always difficulty in getting a specific return." The country is evidently booming, but yet there are many working men in it who would be glad' to share in just the fringe of the boom, to whom a moiety of the £4000 that the Premier has annexed would be as a ray of light to a dungeon, as freedom to a prisoner.