LATEST WELLINGTON NEWS

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2420, 14 January 1888, Page 2

LATEST WELLINGTON NEWS

UNITED PKESS ASSOCIATION.

By Electhic Telegraph—Copyiught).

Wellington, Friday. Hon. Sin \V. PirzHKiUiKUT who lias been appointed to represent this colony at the Australian postal conference will lea\e this evening for Auckland en roule for Sydney. He is accompanied by Mr W. Gray secretary of post and telegraphs, who will supply ail facts and figures that may be necessary. The Cabinet will meet on Monday, to consider the retrenchment scheme. Ministers absent from Wellington have been communicated with, and asked to be in attendance on the day mentioned. A complication has arisen iu connection with the Honorarium Act. When the Bill was originally introduced, it proposed that the Wellington members be debarred from receiving the extra allowances of £50, granted for general expenses to members residing more than 2 miles from the place, of the meeting of Parliament. The Bill was amended, so that the Wellington members of the House, who had to tight elections should receive £25, but the amendment inserted had the words, '* General Assembly, whico of course means both branches of the Legislature. It is stated that four Wellington Legislative Councillors —the Hons. rt. HaTt, P. A. Puekley, R. Pharazm and John Martin —sent in vouchers for the amount when the session ended, and the Speaker of the Council, after consideration, accepted the wording of the Act us it stood, and signed the vouchers, which were paid by the Treasury without I being first submitted to the Controller and Auditor-General. When they did reach that officer he contended that although the words "General Assembly" were in the Act it was evident from the context that they were not intended to apply to members of the Legislative Council, and that the claims should not have been certi tied to or paid. He accordingly refused to pass the expenditure, and has, it is understood, called upon the Speaker to refund the money paid on his certificate.