PARLIAMENTARY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXXI, Issue 7052, 23 October 1900, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY.

RAISING MEMBERS' ALLOWANCES.

DISCUSSION IN THE HOUSE.

The Supplementary Estimates were considered in committee between 4.45 and 8.15 a.m. on Saturday, and passed without alteration.

Tbe Colonial Secretary, in reply to members who opposed tbe sessional allowance to members, said the Government believed that members were insufficiently paid. He was prepared to advocate an increase of the honorarium to £800. A sessional allowance could be voted by putting a clause in the Appropriation Bill. The Public Revenues Act Amendment Bill was not necessary for tbe legalising of tbe vote.

After debate, the vote was passed by 31 votes to 11, the minority comprising Messrs Atkinson, Buddo, Collins, Ell, Herries, John Hutcheson, Lang, McGuire, Pirani, Rhodes, and J. W. Thomson.

Commenting on this matter, tbe Wellington Post says:— Tbe Supplementary Estimates revealed the prioe that has to be paid for the passage of the iniquitous Public Revenue Act Amendment Bill. The Premier seems to have purchased his unconstitutional control over public moneys with a vote to increase by forty pounds the honorarium paid to members of the House of Representatives. The origin of this contemptible exhibition of political "logrolling" dates back even further than the new Revenue ■ Bill. It can be traced directly to tbe discussions upon the measure increasing tbe salaries and allowances of the Executive. The Premier appears to have said to his amlcontent followers, "If you agree to raise the emoluments granted to myself and my colleagues I will see that your own honorariums are increased." It was not very safe to bring down a bill raising the salaries of members; that would have been too open a course for a politician so wedded to " ways tbat are dark and tricks that are vain." Besides, the Premier bad certain alterations he wished to make in the law regulating the expenditure of the public revenue. So he ingeniously drew up a bill embodying those alterations, and containing a clause that would enable him to increase the remuneration of members by tbe Bitnple process of a vote on tbe Supplementary Estimates.