The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1886. THE REDISTRIBUTION QUESTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2335, 1 July 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1886. THE REDISTRIBUTION QUESTION.

The House has been sounded in the lobbies as to whether it would consent 1 to a reduction in its numbers in settling . the redistribution question, and as it might have been anticipated the feeling of the majority of members was hostile to any proposal to increase the dimensions of tbo constituencies and decrease the representative total, The smaller the constituencies are, the cheaper they become to canvass, and no doubt chis consideration is fatal to any proposal to improve the existing arrangements. The General Assembly cost!) the country more than it can afford to pay, and members though they' naturally do not begrudge an expenditure which goes i;ito their own pockets, yet feel a little nervous as to what their constituents will say on this particularly delicate subject, Some pretence of economizing must be made and retrenchment ideas are shot up as signal rockets quite, however, on the understanding that they are to end in smoke. The General Assembly costs the colony about sixty thousand pounds a year, if we include in the total that most iniquitous perquisite " the free railway pass" attached to each members watch chain which enables him to travel gratnitiously from Auckland to Jnveroargill. The contribution of ths Wairarapa alone to this special expenditure would exceed a thousand a year. Our own share would therefore cover the cost of two M.fl.li's., and a couple of M.L.C's. The average elector who contributes to this outlay will we think be of the opinion that we ought to get our M.ILR's., cheaper, and our M.L.C's., ut half the price they cost us, Our Legislators while they are in Wellington draw ten or twelve pounds a week 'presumably to cover the cost o£ their board and lodging, Their weak point is that though they pose as democrats they J.ike to live like.Princes, .As true democrats a pound a day would. be ample, but they are anything but true democrats in the Empire city where very many of them lire like fighting copies, and colsce themselves for the comparatave self denial they have to exercise when they are at home, It is time that the country demanded a reduction in the wasteful and extravagant expenditure on our legislator*. Without a considerable amount of pressure they will never reduce it themselves, and they hesitate to effect any rial retrenchment iu other Government Departments; for Ministers might .retaliate by proposing to lessen their emoluments, We fancy that public men in New Zealand, whether Legislators or humble County Councillors, pocket more of the taxpayers' money than in any country in .the world, They are delightfully unanimous on this point! ' Education Board mem hers keep the members of Waste Lands Boards in countenance, aud wealthy M,L.O,'sare as eager for their spoil' dulics as impecunious , M.H.K.'s, Ministers of the Crown in thoirturn draw all sorts.of from, the highest to the 'lowest Ib'e guiding instinct appears to be "grab." distribution is an opportunity . for retrenchment which might" well be

taken mlvuntuge of, KotiWcliuiw

is indeed talked of on,all aides,[Jbut we venture to predict thai wheni the redistribution of , seats haß become an accomplished fact, the annual bill against the' Colony will be bigger than ever. ' . v. \