"THE FORTY-POUNDS STEAL"

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 103, 29 October 1900, Page 5

"THE FORTY-POUNDS STEAL"

\ <•■ (Christchurch Truth). The steal from the Treasury was apparently on. a par with the conduct of the majority of members. . . . The present House . . . has been guilty of more political jobbery, more impudent theft of the colony's funds, for improper purposes, and more generally doubtful transactions than any Parliament that has yet de- * graded the halls of the Legislature. ... I Those thirty-one gentlemen who voted for that £40 appropriation will have some difficulty in explaining matters. No more discreditable, piece of business has yet taken plajce, although to what depths we may sink in» the future, judging from present indications, can only be conjectured. People; are ceasing to be surprised at anything ; soon 1 they will cease to be shocked. {North Otago Times.) ' Ten years ago a transaction of this sorb would- have created consternation in the rapks of the electors^ of the colony, j b,ut we have outgrown the disposition to cavil at trifles ;, and with a more matter-of-fa^ct eye we view the men who cannot look after .themijelves without of course actually coming wijfchin reach of the Tqaf as Unfit to hustle along the colony in i?s triumphant progress It is certainly expected of the House that someone should' move next session that a sum of money be placed-, on the Estimates to purchase statues of Bosses Tweed and (Jroker — statues, if possible, with a nimbus around their heads. (Southland Times.) Jobbery has ; reigned triumphant throughout the session, and has culminated in the demonstration of one of the most scandalous procefedings that has ever found a place in the records of party government. (Auckland Star.) A more unjustifiable proceeding than the voting of omembers of a bonus of £40 to on Saturday has rarely disfigured the annals of the New Zealand Parliament. It is an unscrupulous^, piece of business without parallel. Possibly members, jaded by long and weary sittings, may honestly have believed that they had earned a monetary solatium, but to the general public the transaction will appear lacking in the \very rudiments of commercial morality. It is the first abuse of the Pubftc Revenues Act of the present session. This* law makes an appropriation by the Supplementary Estimates possible where hefore an amendment in the statutory law would have been necessary. Before the passing of the Public Revenues Act the vqting of a bonus to members on the. Supplementary Estimates would have been illegal; anc\ that the vote is an abuse of this law we have no hesitation in affirming. •• . ♦ . Ministers should never have niade the proposal, and members who supported it might well be, ashamed to meet their constituents. . . . The taxpayers are not in a position to shoulder this extra burden without feeling its weight; and they are certainly not likely to assume it tamely when it is piled up in the unconstitutional manner witnessed on Saturday. The "bonus" vote of £40 to members, when the attendant circumstances are considered, is a Parliamentary episode of the most discreditable nature

The "mean man" was present at yesterday afternoon's gathering of friendly societies on the Basin R^erve. The collection in aid of the Orphanage amounted to £13 6s, and the coins included four bad sixpenny .pieces, one bone button, and a gelatine lozenge. The latter "coin," it is suggested, was put in by some kindlvdisposed gentleman in mistake for half a sovereign. If so, he can get the lozenge in return 1 for the coin.