Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1884. EFFECTS OF A DISSOLUTION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 170, 16 June 1884, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1884. EFFECTS OF A DISSOLUTION.

A good deal of misconception (says the Post) appears to exist m regard to the effect of a dissolution at the present time. The present Parliament will, unless its duration is prematurely ended, expire by effluxion of time on the Bth of December next, when its three years' 1 course will have been run. If Parliament, however, is now dissolved, the new House will date its three years' tenure of office from the date of its election. There will not be, as some people seem to imagine, another general election m December next. The members now to be ! elected will hold their seats for three years, unless they are m turn permanently dissolved. Thus the. dissolution will not really entail any additional expense on the country. It -will cost ho more to have a general election m July than to have "one m December. The expense will be m having a second session of Parliament within the year. If the new Parliament is called together immediately after the elections, the ordinary meeting will have to be held about the usual period next year as well, and the members of the ninth Parliament will, if suffered to live the ordinary term of office, include four sessions at least m their three years' 1 service. The chief item of expense m connection with two sessions m a year is the honorarium to members. All the permanent officers of the Legislature are paid so much per year, but the honoraruira is paid per session. In regard to permanent salaries, clerical expenses, lighting, &c, two short sessions would be very little more expensive than one long ! one sitting for the same period, but the honorarium is a serious question. Members fortunate enough to come back after the election will receive from the public purse no less a sum than four hundred guineas for some three or four months' service. The country is really scarcely able to bear this expense. Will the members of the present House prove patriotic and self-denying? They would raise themselves immensely m public opinion if, instead of insisting on their pound of ffesh m the shape of two hundred guineas for what will be only about a month's work, they were to decline to receive more than one-half that sum. One hundred guineas would amply cover any possible expense incurred by attendance, and leave a fair balance over towards coming election expenses. If they insist on the full amount, and their successors do the same, the new Treasurer will have to find some LSOJOOO to pay honorarium with during the current year. A Legislature is really an expensive luxury at such a price.