The Press. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. 1891.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7965, 12 September 1891, Page 4

The Press. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. 1891.

Thb Payment of Members Bill has passed safely through the House of Representatives after a good deal of whipping up on the part of those vfho regard a salary of £240 a year paid monthly as the great safeguard of tlia people's liberties. We will do the Premier the justice of believing that he was most anxious to find some excuse for droppiug the measure for at least the present session. Mr. Ballance has been long enough in public life to realise that the Bill, which his followers have forced upon him, ia calculated to very seriously damage the prestige of the party in the country, aud lay ie open to the charge of the moat glaiiug self-seeking. The arguments employed in support; of the proposed increase are so obviously mere excut os, that it is idle to waste words in further opposition to the proposal. The majority of the Government party have evidently made up their minds that they will have this increase of pay if they can get it, and Miuisters have beeu forced to head the movement regardless of the consequences. It has been proved conclusively that the present remuneration is ample for reimbursing members for their outlay, and it must therefore be concluded that the balance is a free gift by the couutry to mem bers. The payment is simply a lavish waste of public money, utterly uncalled for and wholly indefeusible in the existing condition of the colony's finances. It has been urged that members are put to considerable expense in connection with their elec- | tion, and that it is only right that they should be reimbursed mat out* lay. But why, we would ask, should I successful candidates alone be paid their expenses, while defeated candidates have to bear the entire cost out of their own pockets? The argument is on the face of it ridiculous, aud the sooner the fact is frankly recognised that the proposal is simply a barefaced scheme for dipping into the colonial purse the better. Members are in the position to remunerate themselves according to their own ideas of the ralue of their services to the country, and they have not hesitated to take advantage of the opportunity. Moreover, this is being done at a time when economy in all the public departments is the order of the day. Valued public servants have been dismissed in all directions. The Minister of Public Works has been bemoaning the sad fact that, in his opinion, there are numerous works of pressing importance to be done, but there is no money available. Yet, in such circumstances, the Government have had the indefohoy to come down with a measure which will increase the expenditure by a good many thousand pounds, without the smallest excuse for such a proposal. Why should the taxes of the people be thus lavished on members, when, according to the Ministerial Recount, there is such a want of funds for supposed pressing require-; ments3 " ;, . ' The answer is evident. The majority ; are determined to grab all tlysy c&&, and Ministers have not the'courage, and backbone to rcsuss the demands. Perhaps, on the Whole, it ia just as well that this discreditable proposal should have been brought forward and carried in the House of Representatives. If it becomes law it wilt cost us a considerable sum; ; Bat it will open the eyes of the electors, and show them to what a low' level a professedly Liberal Government may fall in older to maintain itself in office. It will not only discredit the Government before the country, but it will create a feeling of disappointment and irritation which will have a powerful effect on publio opinion. It might almost have been, thought that some enemy of the Government, and of the Government party, had suggested the proposal, for certainly those who have carried the measure are no real friends of the Ministerial party. The decision of the House amounts simply to this: that ml its opinion a sufficient salary should be paid to the members to keep them all the year round. We are now to understand that in the opinion of those members, when ouce a man is elected for Parliament, he is to give up hie private occupation. Indeed, we have been informed that this is really what ia aimed at. It has been said that at, least one I member of the party frankly admitted that if the Bill did not pass he would, after the session, have to go back to work. And why not, we would ask ? Is it at all degrading to earn an honest living like the rest of the community? By all means, we say, let the legitimate expenses involved in attending the session be defrayed. But the sum set apart for that purpose in the existing Act is more than ample for that. If in addition members are to be paid sufficient to live in idle ness for nine months of the year, then they are simply converting themselves into professional politicians. Now a professional politician is about the lowest type of a public man. Be ceases at once to be in touch with the aims and aspirations of the people who have elected him. He looks upon politics as a means Of livelihood, and is placed ia, constant temptation to betray the trust reposed in him by the constituencies. We say emphatically that when men can manage to earn by politics, lor three months' work, sufficient to keep themselves in greater comfort than vrero they engaged in their usual occupations, they cease to be real representatives. They aro persons apart from the people, and occupying a superior positien to the rest of their fellow workmen. ',

We have said that we cannot believe that the Premier has failed to see the inevitable result of his proposal. It will not only damage him, but thoae in whose interests it is professedly brought forward. There is, it ia true, another

The Premier! maY be getting a little weary of the SSatiag ooatwl exercised over him iS the pweent eeseioa by the S 1 sectiJu of bis followers. Hβ mly have resolved to have bia revenge. El* allowing them to get into trouble with, their ja no secret that Mr. Bamancb, at first, had no liking for working n»u representatives. Writing to Mr. Jotck before the bet election, ho said, ''With reaped to what is known as « labor candidates, I think the people «Rcnerally will make a mistake » "they are led away by a cry «of this kind. . . A member of « Parliament ought not to be a mere " delegate for a particular class, but « should be a representative pledged «to principles. This kind of ropro- « seutative will do more good for the '• working classes than a ono-idcad man " sent to Wellington to speak by the ! " card and who perhaps would do his "speaking badly." Cau it bo that Mr. Ballancb has resolved to Uo what he caa to demonstrate the correctness of the view ho entertained beforo tho election placed him in tho power of the extreme section of his following 1