PAYMENT OF MEMBERS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 55, 13 September 1928, Page 10

PAYMENT OF MEMBERS

(To the Editor.) Sir, —"B. Strong may be a "man of means" or one of the crowd, but he can certainly have litUe knowledge o£ Parliamentary life so fur as the thousand and one little calls made on a member's salary, our immunity from which we are to bo thankful I'or; £450 can hardly be termed a princely salary. Reform may; be essential for real efficiency, but reducing our legislators to pemiry does not seem the road to efficiency. "B. Strong" says a year's salary or three or four months' work. Does a member's work stop when the House, closes, or do the "exes." stop? .If members were paid the same as an ordinary business man attending a law Court, or even £3 per day while in session only, it is safe to say that our laws would be duly considered before being passed, instead of as at present. Who amongst us would think of doing our best work sitting up in a stuffy chamber —this applies to the gallery at least—until two or three or even later in the morning, night after night. The whole trouble to my mind is electing people to be members who have other business to atteud to, which means the sooner the session is over the sooner they can get back to their business. Skimping the salary is not the remedy. Getting people who'will give all their time to the work for which they are paid should be. the aim of the electors. Reducing our legislators to penury cannot have a wholesome effect. Let them be well paid for their work, and exact their attention to their work. At present it appears that a year's work is scamped into three or four months.—l am etc., QUO FATA VOCANT.