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Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16946, 22 September 1920, Page 6

There will be little or no disagreement on the part of the general public, we imagine, with tho proposed amendments in the Civil List Bill, which provides for more generous payment of our legislators. They are practically, if not- actually, the only class in the community who have not benefited by the universal upward tendency of wages, and, with the present high cost of living some of them, especially those who have to keep two houses going during the session, must have found the honorarium of £2CO and £300 respectively, quite insufficient- to meet the extra expense involved in attendance on Parliamentary duties. The provision that Ministers may draw payment as members in addition to their Ministerial salaries follows Canadian precedent, lr. the case of the- Prime Minister, it taises' his salary to £2COO, and no one having regard to the great responsibilities of his position, and the immense amount of hard work that it imposes on hint, will assert that Mr Massey will bo in the least degree overpaid with such a sum. The only item to which any exception can be taken, is the £'1000 for tho Speaker of the House, who occupies a position that is largely ornamental, and whose labours, we think, would be adequately recognised by a smaller sum.

In spite of the immense importance o: research worl: in the development of British industry there is not yet the general recognition of its value that cculd be wished. Not long ago the directors of the great chemical firm. Brunner Mond, and Co., who have vast nickel interests in Ontario, proposed to grant £100,000 to such xmiversities or scientific institutions in the Old Country as they might select- for the purpose of aiding scientific education and leseareh. The shareholders at tho annua! meeting were, however, so indignant at such a waste (as they deemed it) of their money, that the chairman unwillingly withdrew the offer. The "Statist," commenting on the incident, remarks: —/' \Yc entirely lost tho chemical industry in the period immediatelv preceding the outbreak of the great war, because our traders and manufacturers did precisely what tho shareholders of tho Brunner, Mond Co. have done, and declined to spend money on research. ' Happily, not all commercial organisations are so shortsighted. The British Empire Steel Corporation, a Canadian company, subscribed £<30,000 a few wcoks ago to Dalholtsie University for professorships in research work in connexion with the natural resources of Nova Scotia, and the Canadian shareholders enthusiastically ondorsed tho directors! action.