THOSE FREE PASSES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10614, 12 June 1920, Page 6

THOSE FREE PASSES

The Prime Minister has, in the columns of a contemporary (’’Evening Boat”), placed this matter of tho froo passes on the Union Company’s furry boats in a clear light. We quote his statement;

Tho suggestion was made by one of tho members —I cajiuot remember for tho moment who it was—that, w> far as tho ferry service between Wellington and Lyttelton was concerned, the Union Company woiijd ■bo willing to give members passes. Some lime after that .1 uu.t the managing director of the company—when I was travelling on one of the steamers, 1 think —and mentioned what had been suggested, and he replied that he believed- the directors would be riuite willing to extend the passes in the wav suggested. Laic la. February of this year I had a letter from the managing director of tho company in which he -said he believed it was desirable that members of Parliament should bo encouraged to visit every part of the Dominion. Therefore, the company intended, in place members on ibe same footing travelling on the Wellingfon ferrv -service as when' on iho raiiways. Basses would, therefnro, ho issued during the term of the present Parliament. I have since, received a number of letters from members asking me to thank tho Union Company for their courtesy.

Mr Massey is reported by the, same paper to have added that “during tho coming erosion Parliament would take in hand the question of the privileges and salaries of members of Parliament, and ho had no doubt this question would then ho dealt with.’’ The facts, then, arc that some patriotic member suggested to tho Prime Minister that the ferry boats should be as free to members of Parliament as the State railways; that Mr Massey, in tho same patriotic spirit approving the suggestion, improved a shining hour of travel by passing it on to the managing director of the Union Company; that some time later the managing director, patriotically approving of the suggestion on the ground that members of Parliament ought to bo encouraged to visit every part of the Dominion, obtained the company’s sanction to give effect to it by granting passes during the term of the present Parliament. These patriots are, without doubt, aiming at a good thing—the enlightenment of tho Parliamentary mind. But they have all forgotten the freedom of tho Parliamentary hand. One set — the political—has asked for largesse from the other net—the commercial; ■the request has been granted; and some of the politicians have humbly returned thanks through the Prime Minister, who, if he has not forwarded them, has publicly declared tho expression of them. All have failed to consider that th(f receipt of largesse hy public men from a private company is fatal to that freedom from suspicion which the necessary serenity of public life requires. What is a free steamer pass hut bpard and lodging for a short term? What prevents any private company or individual from paying tho members’ board and lodging for a longer term—say, tho duration of Parliament —on tho ground that it is desirable that Parliamentary enlightenment should not he interfered with by sordid cares? The point is, of course, that the Union Company—any company or individual, for that matter —may he tho object of legislative interference; and cannot, therefore, receive board, and lodging or ahy other largesse. A small matter? Tho principle is the same. An octopus may get hold with a small tentacle, hut the objection is to the hold, not to tho power of tho tentacle.

Mr Massey said that the matter will he dealt with by Parliament. There is but one way. Parliament must thank tho Union Company, and declare that tlic country can pay for the privileges of its public men by tbo expenditure of public money. Tho present neglect of this salutary principle in one of the most amazingly thoughtless things that public life lias afforded in onr time.