FREE PASSAGES FOR M.P.'s.

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 138, 11 June 1920, Page 8

FREE PASSAGES FOR M.P.'s.

LOWERING THE PRESTIGE OF

PARLIAMENT.

(HI TBLEGIUPH.—SPECIAL TO THE POST.)

AUCKLAND, This Day.

The protest made by the Canterbury Ghamber of Commerce regarding the acceptance of free passages on Union Company's steamers between Wellington and Lyttolton is endorsed by the Star. In an editorial, the paper says : "If Mr. Massey has a reply to make to the protest of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, we should like to hear it. If it is true that the Prime Minister applied to the Union Company for these passes, he did something that was as improper as it was astonishing. We would 1 not have believed it of Sir. Massey. Could he not see that it was highly undesirable that the Prime Minister should ask for, and that the people's representatives should aaccept, a gift? Whatever Mr. Massey's responsibilities may be, the fact is that the .passes have been granted by the company. We agree entirely with the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, that as a matter of principle under no circumstances should any member of the Legislature as such be placed under private or personal obligation to the proprietor or proprietors of any private business carried on in New Zealand. In this case the business is one of the largest and most powerful in New Zealand, and its interests touch the interests of the people, and therefore subjects of legislation, at) many points. It is, therefore, most desirable that members of Parliament should befreeto aot, where the company's interests are involved, without giving any cause for suspicion that their decision is not disinterested— main contracts, for example. Oould it be said that members who were saved a considerable sum in steamer fares in t!he course of the year, through acceptance of the Union Company's gift, wouldl not be placed in an awkward position if the question of cancelling or extending the contract was before the House? But objections to such relation between the legislators and a public company are 60 obvious that we need not labour Wie point. Such an acceptance lowers the prestige of Parliament, and strikes at the principles • underlying the purity of public life. If members can show that the cost of steamer travelling is a hardship, the proper course is to relieve them out of State funds. We hope that the members concerned will realise the impropriety of accepting these free passages, and" that ,if they do not the. Canterbury Chamber's resolution will be backed by similar protests from all over the country."