The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1886. LEGISLATIVE EXPENDITURE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2365, 5 August 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1886. LEGISLATIVE EXPENDITURE.

The recommendations of the committee appointed to report oil the expenditure in connection with the Now. Zealand Legislatme urn now before Parliament and tho country, and they may he regarded as a hopeful sign of tbn now leaf which requires, in the interests nf the colony, to be turned over. The recommendations are simple and moderate, They favor a reduction in the number of members in each House, a paring down of the present excessive honorarium or political benevolence, h reform in that most, extravagant and useless periodical known as Hansard, and a re-arrangement of the business of the Houho, so that,its work from session . to session may be more continuous. One gore split—the members' free railway left untouched, but the abuses that are dealt with in the report will, if effect be given to it, represent a saving of perhaps .£20,000 per annum. This report is the keynote of financial reform in New Zealand. Economy, lib charity, must begin at home, and if members will not set their own house in order it is useless to expect them to rejjulhto other people's. We want now a Ministry that will take up this report and carry, out its recommendationa with a firm hand, Major Atkinson might do to, but we doubt whether Sir Robert Stout has enough baokhone for such an invidious task. Of course, if tho House leads the Ministry on Bucb a question the task would become easy. But we question very much the desire of the House to carry a measure of this kind, and unless there is a bold Ministerial lead, backed by a strong expression of publio opinion outßide the House, the proposed reform will': be shelved, We attach great ini|ibrlanoe to the report of,, this comnlittee, because if this particular

retrenchment is effe.cted, corres|.omling reductions will follow in nil biwdirit of the public service; but if■ this particular retrenchment is postponed, or. refused, we may feel, pretty well assured that the, existing profligate expenditure in* New Zealand' will be continued, and that we shall go i on living beyond our means till the'wolf is at our doors