CABINET MINISTERS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 18, 15 July 1911, Page 8

CABINET MINISTERS

SALARIES COMPARED, '"i. Writing to the 'Sydney Morning Herald' of a recent big function given by the British Prime Minister to the visiting delegates to the Imperial Conference and other prominent men, Sir Henry Lucy says:— The entertainment was all very well for the guests, whose only complaint was about the difficulties of getting in and getting out, and moving when they had achieved entrance. It is a different thing for the Prime Minister, to whom this episode, lasting from half-past 10 till after midnight, was an item of the day's work. In addition to the cares of State, vastly augmented just now by the crowding in of the colonies, he had his parliamentary duties to attend to as assiduously as if they comprised his sole burden. I saw him in the House at question time, dealing with a multiplicity of important questions. He came on from Buckingham Palace, where lie lunched with the King to meet the colonial Premiers. Later he presided at his own table at a dinner given to the Premiers, and then went on to the Foreign Office to fill the principal part in a historical pageant. It is only a strong man who can, with withers unwrung, face this daily ordeal. Happily Mr. Asquith is, physically and intellectually, adamantine in strength. It cannot be said that for such labor, compared with which the British workman's eight-hour day is a restful interval, the Prime Minister is overpaid. When the other night, after the Dalziel dinner, I B aw Mr. Asquith cheerily conversing with Harry Lauder, there Hashed upon my mind the incongruous thought of the earning power of the two men. The Premier, as evervone knows, has a salary of £5,000 a year, a sum which in view of expenditure pertaining to his office, presents no margin for savings. lam almost definitely informed as to the amount of Harry Lauder's weekly takings in this country. It is understood that for the present he is somewhat hampered by contracts entered upon before he had completed his conquest of the musichall world. In the United States, where he was a free agent, he earned a clear £l/)0Q a week. It is probably 11 n underestimate to assume that his income is at the rate of £30,000 a year -a sum equal to the aggregate salaries of the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the hx-chequer, the Secretary of State for I'c-reign Affairs, the Secretary of Mate for War, the Home Secretary, and the Secretary of State for India. Knowing these things, it is not surprising to read that "the Great Lafayette, who came to a tragic end in Minburgh the other week, left behind him a fortune of £MO,OOO. Of course, «>e star,, in the firmament of the music, pc od kke the great Vance of mid*m temporary favorues live to a period of adVaiiced years stances. A canny Scot, Hart-? Lauder in* invested large sums in land, ivfiicli tl"»igli not yielding an immediate big "'turn. Ims the quality of treasure laid >l> elsewhere: neither moth nor rust S^T ,,rt,nora,ievcßbrcßkthrou ß h