The £40 Steal.

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 1906, 23 October 1912, Page 2

The £40 Steal.

As wo pointed out at the time of the introduction of the measure, the crux of the Public Revenues Bill introduced by tho Government is the repeal of the clause which enabled the celebrated £40 steal to be perpetrated by members ol Parliament in the 1900 session. But though it was bad enough that such an action should be made legal, there was a grosser scandal in the clause in that it enabled large sums of money to bo paid to statutory officers in defiance of the law previously existing. And that for the reason that members were responsible to their constituents for what they filched from the public purse themselves, but thero was no way of bringing home to others benefited tho iniquity of a law which permitted such a system to go unchecked. This is clearer wßfen wo understand that votes on tho estimates are, in the majority of cases, subjected to littlo scrutiny in Parliament itself, for the time for consideration is generally taken up in discussions on side issues which never should bo allowed to bo introduced at such a stage, to tho detriment of a thorough examination of tho moro important details of expenditure. Tho repeal of tho section in question means that if Government decido to increase the payments to any statutory officer it must be done by Bill passed by both Houses, instead of a vote on the estimates which cair only be dealt with in the Lower House.