The Daily News. TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1912. PAYMENT OF MEMBERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 79, 20 August 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1912. PAYMENT OF MEMBERS.

The movement in the House 01 iteprescntatives for an increase in the honoraria of both members and oouncillors is one which demands a certain amount of support. It is a delicate subject, naturally, for the members themselves to japproach, but in a matter of public policy there is no need for any more diffidence on their part. They hold no J extensive tenure of office, and the sauce which they wish to prepare for themselves may very easily be found to btf the sauce for the gander which folIo\: them in two years' time. When the honorarium was raised to £3OO some years ago there was a general howl throughout the country, and hysterical charges of the spoils to the victors character were scattered broadcast throughout the country, with quite unnecessary emphasis. There are still some good folk with old-fashioned ideas who protest against any payment of members at all, but they are mostly people who have never sat in Parliament. Without payment, Parliament of necessity becomes an institution that can represent only the classes, at the expense of the masses, If the payment were abolished it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a poor man to enter the kingdom of Parliament. Fortunately we have got past this stags of Conservative thought in the Dominion, and are now prepared, irrespective altogether of party considerations, to recognise that the laborer is worthy of his hire. The only question that concerns us is what assessment to place upon the value of political services. We do not think that the proposal to raise the honorarium to £4OO is at all extravagant. Only those who have an intimate knowledge of political life know what the calls upon members' privato purses really are. In their own constituencies their hands are never out of their pockets, for it has become a recognised tiling for every social and athletic and charitable organisation in the country to regard the member for the district as "good for a guinea," whilst the fact of having voted for a man Is regarded in many quarters as constituting a legitimate and quite unchallengeable excuse for borrowing a "fiver" from him, repayable the day after Judgment Day. We are not at all sure that it would not be a wise thing for Parliament to pass legislation making it an offence for members of Parliament to contribute to I the funds of such organisations as we bare mentioned, but in the meantime it is obvious that if we are to have the services of the best intellects in the Dominion we must be prepared to pay a reasonable sum to induce men of ability and integrity to enter Parliament. There are many business men who are exceptionally qualified for Parliamentary service who cannot afford to spare the time from their business to undertake a political career at the present remuneration. but who would willing-

ly sacrifice their private interests to some extent if the sacrifice did not entfiil too heavy a tax upon their pockets. Personally, ve should like to see the honorarium raised and tlio number of members reduced, for a House of eighty members is quite out of proportion to the necesisties of a country with a population of a mere million. Fewer men hotter paid would of proportion to the necessities of a higher and more representative calibre. We pay our judges and our magistrates and our heads of departments liberal salaries, and it sepms a litfcie bit anomalous that the men who have to frame the laws' that they are called upon to administer should be paid the pittance of a chief olerk.