THE Temuka Leader SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1892. THE ECONOMY’ OF PAYING MEMBERS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2412, 15 October 1892, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1892. THE ECONOMY’ OF PAYING MEMBERS.

The present members of Parliament .will gain nothing by the Payment of Members Act. It will not come into force until the Ist of January next, and as the rate of payment is £2O per month, and Parliament must expire by effluxion of time at the end of next August, they cannot get more than £1(10. Under the old Act they were entitled to £l5O, so the most they can gain is £lO. Let us suppose, on the other hand, that the Government will be defeated, and a dissolution will take place in June next, the present members will lose, for they will get only £l2O, or 6 months’ pay. instead of the £l5O to which they were entitled under the old law. They therefore run the risk of losing by the change, while they can gain only a few pounds at the best. It cannot be said, therefore, that the present members were actuated by mercenary motives. It is true they have provided for themselves if they succeed in getting re-elected, but so far as this Parliament is concerned the members cannot gain much by it. Another thing is that henceforward nothing shall be allowed for double sessions. They may hold ten sessions in a year, but they shall not get more than £2lO. Hitherto members were paid so much per session, and always managed to squeeze four sessions into every three years. There were double sessions in 1879, 1881, 1887, and 1890, Thus they got four honorariums every three years, which, when the amount was £2lO a session, meant £BIO for the Parliament, or at the rate of £270 a year. This is an interesting fact. The people thought the members were only receiving £2lO a year, whereas, in reality, by this double session dodge, their annual salary was £270, or £3O a year more than the present salary. Will it be believed that the Hon. William Rolleston, who has become severely virtuous lately, was amongst those who originally fixed the honorarium at £2lO, and was by all accounts the first to pocket it when earned. It is plain, therefore, that fixing the honorarium at £2O a month is a great gain to the colony. There will henceforth be no double pay for double sessions, and consequently the gain to the colony will be considerable. No one, therefore, need make any noise about the payment of members, as instead of being an increase it is absolutely a decrease. Of course it is a slight increase on the honorarium of £l5O a year, but if double sessions were to be taken into the reckoning the difference could not affect the estimates very seriously. One thing is certain. Ministers themselves have not increased their own salaries. When the virtuous Mr Rolleston was in office the Premier’s salary was £1750 a year, and his six ministers received £1250 each. Now the Premier gets £IOOO a year, and his five ministers £BOO each. The virtuous Mr Rolleston used to pocket £l5O more than the present ministers, and what is troubling his conscience now is not that the money is leaving the treasury, but that he is not getting more of it himself. For Mr Rolleston, who has practically lived on his political earnings the greater part of his life, to say that to give £2lO a year to members is to make them paid agitators, is really too bad. Let us compare the present with the time \vhe n Rolleston w'as a minister, , r , . . , -G1 salaries then amounted iheministex. , ~i r7 _,. A members’ honorariums, . * IC u double sessions, amounted to £25,0... —now they are only £17,700 under The Payment of Members Bill. Thus a reduction of £ll,llO has been effected; but this is certainly not due to the present Government, but to their predecessors, and we only introduce it to show that no one need be afraid of extravagance. At any rate, we think we have clearly proved that fixing the payment of members at £2O a month is the best thing that could possibly be done, and in the face of the facts \ve have adduced we think no one can doubt it.

THE PREMIER,

The Opposition must llave lost all sense of decency. The Premier, as we all know, is very ill, although we are glad to say he is progressing towards recovery, and one would think that common decency would have restrained the Opposition from annoying him with unfounded charges, lint they .appear to have, lost all sense of the fitness of things, and only think of how they can oust the present Government. The Opposition press now say that what is killing the Premier is worry over the finances of the colony. He knows they say the finances of the colony are getting into a mess, that Ids estimates will not be realised, that he will be indignantly spurned from office, and that the Opposition will have a walk over. Now the honest truth is that the revenue is coming in better than was expected, and that it is generally expected the estimates will be more than fully realised. There is not the slightest room for anxiety, and it is gross and shameful indecency for the Opposition to try

and worry the Premier in his sickroom with baseless and annoying insinuations of this nature. As regards Mr Ballance, w) are extremely glad to find that he is recovering his health and strength. He is undoubtedly our ablest statesman and we doubt whether any other Premier has scored so many signal successes. There Avas first the “ Judge ” Edwards case ; then the Legislative Council appointments ; and next the question as to whether the power to grant free pardon could be exercised by the Governor without the advice of Ministers, or not. Mr Ballance held that the Governor could not grant a free pardon unless advised to do so by his responsible advisers, and he succeeded in showing that he was right. These are the three greatest constitutional questions which have ever cropped up in this colony, and the present Ministry have scored in each. Then there is Mr Ballance’s success as a financier, and there is the fact that the majority with which he began on taking office has consistently remained loyal to him, till they have earned the epithet of his “ servile followers.” No other premier commanded such unbounded confidence none was so thoroughly trusted and beloved by his followers, and this is a good criterion of the man’s worth. The Opposition, if they had any grain of decency left, would refrain from making annoying reference to his illness, but we hope he will survive their malevolence. The Opposition are very angry ; they never met with a united Liberal party before, and they are enraged because they cannot be either bribed or cajoled, and they wont be so long as their great chief Mr Ballance lives to lead them.