TRAVEL ALLOWANCES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 178, 18 October 1927, Page 14

TRAVEL ALLOWANCES

PROBLEM OF LOCAL BODY EXPENSES LAW TO BE REVIEWED (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Monday. A UNIFORM law, regulating the travelling allowances and expenses of members of all local bodies, has been promised by the Government, which is to investigate the postion at the end of this session and endeavour to do away with anomalies at the present existing. A clause inserted by the Legislative Council in the Counties Amendment Bill giving the Government power to fix traveling allowances and expenses for local body members by Order-in - Council, was considered by the House of Representatives this evening. Sir Maui Pomare, acting-Minister of Internal Affairs, moved that the Council's amendment should be agreed to. Mr. G. W. Forbes, Leader of the Nationalist Party, said that it seemed extraordinary that travelling allowances should be fixed by Order-in - Council. He thought provision should have been made in the Bill fixing the amount of expenses. The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, pointed out that Mr. Forbes had not suggested any solution of the difficulty. The amendment was a short-cut solution to legalise payments that had been made and meet the position until the whole question could be reviewed. It was the intention of the Government, during the recess, to carry out exhaustive inquiries with the co-operation and concurrence of local authorities. Mr. H. E. Holland. Leader of the Opposition, said that the House was not going to open its mouth and shut its eyes and take what the Government gave it. (Laughter.) He suggested that there should be something definite in the new proposal. The Hon. A. D. McLeod, Minister of Lands, said that the Government was satisfied that the question of allowances to local body members was in need of a thorough overhaul. A Bill should be brought down to deal with the question, apart altogether from the Counties Act. Sir Maul Pomare said that the clause was not a solution of the general question, but merely an expedient for the time being, and in the recess anomalies of the position would be thoroughly gone into, so as to provide a uniform law to cover all local bodies.