The Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1892. PAYMENT OF MEMBERS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2405, 29 September 1892, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1892. PAYMENT OF MEMBERS.

The Payment of Members Bill is once more before Parliament, and the Opposition cry is as loud as ever against it. Up to 1887 we used to pay our members £2lO a year, and Legislative Councillors got exactly the same amount. In that year as a part of the retrenchment policy, the honorarium was reduced to £l5O for members of the Lower House, and £IOO for the Upper House. The proposal now is to give the Lower House £240 a year, and the Upper House £l5O, and we certainly think this is not too much, at any rate-so far as the Lower House is concerned. As regards the members of the Legislative Council they have to incur no expenses ; they have no hard work, and it is very questionable whether £IOO is not enough for them, but if we want *o popularise that chamber we must .' members. We cannot get the pay its . „ noQr men infco it if we right stamp oi x o,„ the members do not pay them. Asn,. • ..,«, t u ev of the House of Kepresentativi.. have terribly hard work to do. h they attend to their duties properly they must start at committee work at 10 o'clock in the morning, and go on examining witnesses and so on until it is time for them to prepare for the opening of the House at 2.30 p.m. Then they have to sit there very often until three or four o'clock in the morning, and if a stonewall is set up they cannot even then getaway. The work is very hard, and has undermined the constitution of many of those who have conscientiously attended to their duties. Then the expense a member is under is enormous. His election expenses may be anything between £IOO and £IOOO. There, is not the slightest doubt but many a thousand will be spent on the next election, because the wealthyclasses will scatter money about freely in the hope that by that means they will regain their lost position. Let us take our own member for instance. There is not a cricket club, a football club, or a school committee entertainment, or anything else within the constituency but look to him for a donation, and we certainly believe that he gives most if not all his honorarium away in subscriptions. Five pounds here and two pounds there would not be long making a hole in £l5O. Then if there is a public meeting t\ie member must be present, however expensive the journey may be. and if there is a public subscription he must head the list. If he is a man engaged in any business he must not only neglect it for three or four months of the year, Hi>ut for the remainder of his time he is not fit for work, because he is continually being interviewed by his constituents, who always look to him to do this that and the other thing from year's end to venr's end. Then what does it cost for stamps on his correspondence, and for telegraphic messages? His constituents are frequently writ',

ing to him while he is in Wellington, and when he returns home he finds it necessary to communicate with Ministers concerning matters affecting his district. What does all this cost ? No one knows, but it should not be forgotten that stamps and telegrams are very large items in a member's expenses during the year. The member is only three or four months in Wellington but he may be said to be always on duty. He is at the beck and call of his constituents from year's end to year's end, and his expenses never cease. While in Wellington he is under very heavy expense. If he rents a house he pays for it twfce as much as any other man would, he is charged for his board more than ordinary people, in fact, he is looked upon wherever he goes as a good mark for getting as much as possible out of him. We notice that the Timaru Herald yesterday quoted from a Wellington paper which says that the members are going to loot the Treasury. This is ruffian language, but we are glad to say that none of the Liberal party has been looting with regard to landscrips or anything else foul and dirty, such as has been detected on the other side. The best thing we can do is to pay our members a resonable sum for doing our work, and then there will be less danger of looting.