COUNTIES AMENDMENT BILL

Cromwell Argus, 28 November 1927, Page 5

COUNTIES AMENDMENT BILL

PAYMENT TO MEMBERS

In tfie Toscussion on the above, Mr Horn. 'M.P. for Wakatipu, said he agreed that the County Councillor ho paid attention to His was probably the hardest-worked member of any local' body in the Dominion. County Councils, at the first meeting- after the elections, should pass a resolution setting- out what each member should be allowed by wity of travelling- expenses. It was quite possible for a man at Tarras, which was thircv-one miles from the County Council offices at Clyde, to be elected representative of the Hawea riding of the Vincent County Ccuncil. There was no regulir conveyance to take him to Clyde, and he would have to drive at least a distance of eighteen miles to Cromwell ai\l board a train there for Clyde. At the next election a man from Makarora. which is eightynine miles from Clyde, might be elected the representative of that riding, and he would have to travel for forty miles in a motor-boat to Pembroke, which would take a whole day, and from there he could travel by a regular motor service to Cromwell, where he could travel by train. The representative of the Carrick Riding of the same County Council might live at Upper Nevis, which was forty-three miles from Clyde, and for seventeen miles of that he would have to travel on horseback or on foot ; then he would have to hire a motor-car to take him into Cromwell, ( where he could board a train to Clyde The County Council should fix the amount of travelling expenses which each representative of a riding could claim. If the expenses were put on a mileage" basis it would be most unfair, because one Councillor might have to travel for a distance of onlyhalf a mile from his residence to a railway station and complete the journey by train; and another man might have to g-o a long distance in a motoivboat or on horseback; so that there was no comparison between the travelling expenses of the two. The proper thing to do therefore was, as he had said, to fix the travelling- expenses of Councillors at the first meeting after each election, as it would then be known > where the Councillors had to travel I from. The clause v*as really divided into two parts. The first read: "The Council may make iu yach of its members a travelling allowance not exceeding such rate as may be prescribed in that behalf by the Governor-General in Council."

The Governor-Geneial in Council could not possibly fix the travellingexpenses, because it was impossible .0 say before an election where the Councillors would come irom. It might cost one Councillor only a few shillings to get to a meeting, and another several pounds. The second part of the clause provided—

"To cover all charges in respect of his attendance at any meeting- of the Council or of any committee thereof, or in respect of his atten d--1 to any business of the Council when authorised so to do by the Council."

That was a step in the right direction, because at the present time a Councillor could only get his expenses when attending- a meeting of the Council; he could claim for nothing else. The Chairman got an honorarium, out of which he paid his own expenses. The Technical College in Dunedin sent a delegation to Wellington two years ago to attend an educational conference, and the institution was billed for the delegates' expenses and threatened with a summons, and a validation Bill had to be put through to put the matter right. The last portion of the clause which he had read was therefore very necessary, as under it Councillors could receive payment for attending committee meetings or attending to any other business of the Council, He agreed wjith the Minister of Lands that County Councillors were doing- a great work, and the proposed amendment would be simply doing them justice, as most of Jthem could not afford to pay their own expenses. It was necessary to have all classes represented on the Council, and the men who had done the' work so well for many yars deserved to have their expenses paid,.