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Press, Volume LX, Issue 18157, 21 August 1924, Page 8

Vice-Regal Salaries. One or two newspapers, commenting upon the fact that the salary and allowances paid to the Governor-General of the Dominion are low enough to restrict the freedom of the New Zealand Government and the Imperial Government in selecting a representative of his Majesty, have suggested that it is not desirable to increase the present rate of payment. Most people, we are sure, will hold a different opinion. It is not right that the King's representative should find himself at the end of his term of office out of pocket, for that would mean that he was paying what clearly ought to bo paid by tho Dominion. Some men might be able without difficulty to supplement, out of their own resources, the inadequate salary and allowance granted by the Government, but others might not. The position ought to be readjusted so that no consideration of that kind need trouble anybody. The office is a high and important one, and there ought to be attached to it a salary which would make unnecessary any thought about its adequacy. It is far better and far more dignified to err, and err largely, on the side of extravagance in this matter than to err, however slightly, on the side of stinginess. The Dominion owes a duty to itself no less than to the King's representative, whoever he may be, and it ought to be able to feel that it is not charging the King's representative for the honour of being amongst us. If Australia can afford to pay its GovernorGeneral an adequate salary, so can New Zealand, and we hope that the Government will give adequate expression to its willingness, which Mr Massey has indicated, to take over part of the financial obligations attaching to the office.