PAYMENTS FOR COUNCILLORS

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28050, 18 August 1956, Page 2

PAYMENTS FOR COUNCILLORS

CHRISTCHURCH CASE QUOTED Cr. C. Baldwin, an independent member of the Christchurch City Council, has been congratulated in the latest issue of “Board and Council,” the local bodies’ journal which in its editorial comment recently has opposed payment for local body service. It reports Cr. Baldwin, who was in favour of payments, as saying that when he first joined the council he was a Transport Board bus driver. The board’s chairman received £2OO a year and the ordinary member £7B a year, yet in his first year on a superior body he lost £l5O. In the next year he lost £lO2, in the next £ll2, and in the fourth year he was the lowest paid in the transport service by £250, yet gave his time and services to a local body. “This surely is an argument against the payment of councillors rather than in favour of it.” the journal comments. “It shows that men are ready, willing and able to offer themselves for service to the community without thought of monetary reward. Congratulations to Cr. Baldwin. Local government needs men like him rather than those who are not prepared to make some sacrifice in the interests of the common good.”