AUCKLAND. [From the New Zealander Extra, Sept. 18.] Expenses of Members of Assembly.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 958, 7 October 1854, Page 3

AUCKLAND. [From the New Zealander Extra, Sept. 18.] Expenses of Members of Assembly.

The following Resolutions, vrhich were embodied in the report of the Select Committee of the House of Representatives appointed to report on the Estimates relating to the expenses of members, and adopted by the House will show the principles by which the House was guided in its decisions on the subject : — " That it is inexpedient to fill up the blank left for the Expenses of the Members of the Legislative Council, because the distinction of performing their duties at their own expense is one which rightly belongs to the members of a legislative body, not elected by the people for their service, but intended to occupy a position, and to perform functions in the legislature, which require that its members should be independent both of executive influence, and of pecuniary obligation to the people, — a double independence, — whereof an essential condition is, that the persons in question should have sufficient private property to render the paymant of their expenses, as members of the Legislature, a matter of no importance to them ; whilst at the same time, it is desirable, with a view to the people's estimation of them, that the important duties which the constitution assigns to them, as one of the co-ordinate branches of the legislature, should be performed gratuitously. " That in all cases of Members of the Legislative Council being summoned to attend the General Assembly, it is the duty of the Government to provide them with a sea passage to and from the port neatest to their homes. - " That in order to afford the people the utmost freedom in the choice of their representatives,

and especially to'tbe end that they m«y not be limited in their selection to persons of independent private property, it is expedient that the ex'perises of the members of this House, as incurred by them in the performance of their -legislative duties, should be reasonably provided for, on a liberal rather than on a parsimonious scale."