MINISTERIAL SALARIES.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17395, 4 March 1922, Page 11

MINISTERIAL SALARIES.

BRITISH OPINION OP NEW ZEALAND'S ECONOMICS.

I Some interesting comments upon the economy methods 6f New Zealand are published in the December number of the "National Review." The "Review" states:—We observe that the 'Prima Minister of New Zealand, Mr Massey, one of the soundest and straightest men in the British Empire, in declaring his determination to make. both ends of tho New Zealand Budget meet, announces that economy will Begin with Ministerial salaries ; the Gov-ernor-General of New Zealand (Viscount Jellicoe) oxpresses his anxiety to ,share the sacrifice. We regret that the Mother Country did not set this admirable example. Unfortunately, there are no signs of anything of the kind here. The King, a,s always, has done his best, and during the war surrendered £IOO,OOO of his Civil List pour encoufager les autres. Not a politician responded so far as we recollect with the solitary exception of Lord Finlay, who accepted the Lord Chancellorship minus the pension of £SOOO a year enjoyed by every occupant of that office, however short his service. We fear the present * Lord Chancellor haa little sympathy with tho cause of economy, because, he inopportunely Indicates atl early increase, in the salary of Judges. At any other time we should have sympathised with this suggestion,, but a penurious country cannol afford the luxury of paying what it has not got. To-day Britain does-not possess the wherewithal to-pay any larger salaries to-. Anybody. People of»all classes are pinching and scraping in order to pay the price- of spendthrift government. ; The Lord Chancellor's proposal at such; a moment is hardly decent. _ Not only' do no Ministers show any sign of following the lead of New Zealand,-butj some Ministers are taking unprece-i dented steps to increase their income bjr excursions into journalism, which, ' though lucrative to the individual, suggests that their offices are not "wholetime jobs," ' and therefore not unsuitable fields for the exercise of the activities of the Geddes's Committee wielding! the super-axe.