BRIGHT NOTIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8985, 20 November 1907, Page 4

BRIGHT NOTIONS.

Some remarkable suggestions emanate from members of Parliament from time to time—remarkable more often than not for their triviality of unwisdom than ior brilliancy of ideas. A week or two ago Mr Poole, member for Auckland West, proposed as a means of increasing the birth rate that there should be a sliding scale of railway fares for mothers whose families ranged from five upwards. The mothers of five, if we remember aright, were to travel at half-fare, and the scale was to decline thenceforward until it reached the "deadhead" stage of ten children. Thte was a very encouraging prospect. It only required time and good luck, if the plan wei\> adopted, for any matron to have railway facilities equal to those granted to members of Parliament. On rlonday last Mr T. M. Wilford, member for Hutt, set forth a proposal quite as sensible. It was this:—"That the Government be requested to bring in a Bill to amend the Payment to Members Act, 1904, on the following lines: — To provide that the maximum salary of members be £350 a year, and also to provide that such sum of £350 a year be reduced by £1 per day for every day that the House is pitting." This he considered would expedite business and shorten the length of the session. There is no doubt as to its having the latter effect, for in ! order to save as much as possible of the extra, £SO there would be an unholy scramble to get through all the business 'that the Government might put before them. In any case they would not exceed , fifty days, whatever the rush involved, as that would bring their pay below its present level, and few members would dream of tolerating anything so objectionable,