PAYMENT OF MEMBERS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 2973, 4 August 1891, Page 2

PAYMENT OF MEMBERS.

; TO TMIJ KDITUII. ' Sill,— Mr Barugh, in commonling mi my ' letter re the: proposal to increase the salary 1 paid t<> members of rjiir Parliament to t'J-10 r |ior annum, payable monthly, de-crilies ; such proposal as "a truly Liberal measure." > As to the " liburality "of thu remuneration ■ proposed thorn can be no two opini >m : its l liberality is only exceeded by its unjusti ness and the bad tasle. of U.illanco and Ins 1 crow in thus bleeding the colony at a time i when thev themselves have admitted that f retrenchment is ueeessaiy. INLr Barugh i states that £150 a year is not to " keep a working man (that being the class I of politicians—save the mark I—in whose I interests he writes). I maintiin that it is, Moreover, they aro not required to put m • the whole of tho year attending Pailiamont. ■ The session generally lasts about three > months, and a crowd of unscrupulous men, ' such as are in the majority in the present i House, can surely do quite enuui'h in that 1 time to arrest settlement and retard the ' progress of tho colony, and this is tho ob- > ject they must have in view if one may judge by the ridiculous measures which have already passed the Lower House this ■ session. Members thus have nine months of the year loft in which to augment the amount of the di.ihonorariuui by earning an '■ honest penny, and I'll be bound the earn : ings for this period of the ni-ijority of those voting with tho Government will not nearly approach the filoO they now obtain for spending thiee months in Wellington. i Bush-falling work is now plentiful, and 1 men hard to get. Good axemen are in demaud. Members of the Government party by introducing such a measure as the Payment of Members Bill, have shown they know well how to grind an axo; if they can handle them as cleverly they should have no difficulty in obtaining work to fill up the interregnum between the sessions of Parliament. Mr Barugh says, " Better be without an honorarium and leave the representation entirely in tho hands of the innnied classes than liavo the present honorarium." With this I quite agree. The present honorarium is more than the colony can rightly afford, and were it abolished men of a better stamp than the majority of our present Parliament would bo found willing to accept the position from patriotic motives and the honour (of which there can be said to be nine in a paid House) which would then attach to the office. Men who have their means invested in tho colony should certainly have a greater voice in the management of ils affairs than those who have no stake whatever in it. At present tho latter have greater power, by excess of numbers, than the man who has his all invested. With a franchise like ours, the moneyed man may be harassed by moans of class legislation, and when the effects of such legislation are felt and the country damned thereby, the propertyless class have only to pack up their paper-collar boxes and seek some inoro favoured spot, whilst tho former has to remain and bear the full brunt uf such legislation or leave the oniony a ruined man. Mr Barugh, in concluding, says, "The Parliaments and Ministries whom the sham Liberal so much admires have been the means of sinking New Zealand to its present deplorable condition." Former Parliaments have made mistakes I admit, and none greater than in extending tho franchise and tho introduction of manhood suffrage. This is hardly a mistake I suppose in Mr Barugh's opinion, but in a few years time, when the baneful effects of the legislation that has beer, introduced through tho extension of the franchise are felt, Mr Barugh's opinion will, I think, undergo a change. Mistakes were, no doubt, also made in expending the money borrowed mider tho Public Works and Immigration Policy, much of it being spent on unproductive and unnecessary works. The working classes, however, were the chief gainers by this policy. Many thousands of families were brought to the colony at tho Government expense, who might, perhaps, never have been able to better their position unless assisted to emigrate. Work was found for them on arrival on the public works, and men who came to the colony without a stiver are today freeholders and men of position. The colony is, if properly governed, still able to meet all its engagement!, and when Ballauce assumed oflico he found a surplus of i' 120,000 in the Treasury. Had the Atkinson party retained power, we should, no i doubt, have had a reduction in tho property i tax and also a reduction in tho Customs I tariff, by which the working ctasses would I have experienced some relief from the i taxation levied on them. Instead of which t we have a Liberal (?) Government in power, I and on? of their chief proposals for the 1 disposal of the surplus is a reduction on the I postal rates—a benefit only to the mercan- | tile community, and one they never ex- 1 poctod or asked for. Mr Barugh takes ex- '. eeption to my signature, and prefixes the i adjective "sham.'' Between Liberalism, as 1 I understand it, and chaotic socialism and ■ anarchy (which Mr Barugh evidently regards as " true" Liberalism) thore is a great gulf fixed, however, and I am not yet prepared to cross it.—Yours, &c, LIiIKUAL.