THE GENERAL ELECTIONS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVI, Issue LVI, 26 October 1908, Page 5

THE GENERAL ELECTIONS

MISSING THE HONORARIUM.

, The harassed msmber of Parliament '\Wib has to work very hard during a"n election campaign has the mortification of losing part of his usual honorarium at that time (says the Dominion). Under the Legislature Act members are not paid £300 for every year of office; they are merely paid "ai; the rate of" £300 per annum. The honorarium' is received in equal monthly payments, and is calculated from the day named in the writ for the election at which | they were returned, until the\expiry or dissolution of the Parliament for which they were elected. This year Parliament would normally expire on December 13, but in view of the general election it must not be allowed to expire normally. Its career must be cut short by the Governor a set time before the next poll, and the dissolution of Parliament will therefore be announced next wook. This means that members who are not re-elected will lose about, six weeks' honorarium, which, they would receive on ether years — ;that is, about £36 in solid cash. With the (election taking place on November 17, the^ new Parliament will commence as from' November 24, so that the member who is re-elected will lose only about three weeks' honorarium for the year, or, roughly, £18.

THE GREATEST TRUST.

"Instead of us having to fight trusts through the State as is dono in America through President Roosevelt/ safot Mi F. M. h. Fisher on Friday night, ll the time is coming when vre shall h'a'vVtd fight a great trust in the .State itself; that will be one of the great 'fights in tho future." The' State,, he pointed out,, was paying at the , present ,tyne about 3i million pounds per annum 1 in wages. It was employing, roughly, some 30,(100 pejigle. It had directly r under, its thumrr a Public Works 1 ex'penctrcvire of 2£ millions, and in addition it iiarl all the patronage that only a Government could have. The 80,000 Government employees influenced, if they did not control, another 80,000, so that the Government ,at the j>re*sent time, owing to the nationalisation of such services as railways and publio trusts, wove able to produce an influence upon 60,000 people^ and they controlled an expenditure %f six millions of money? And what Was the position? On the day of the last'election a certain newspaper leading atticlo, as far as he could remember tho words, commenced as follows:" — "Let the Civil Service to-day remember what the Government has done for it,, and what the Government is going to do for it in the days to come." It was only necessary to increase that spirit to increase the number of State employees, and the amount of wages paid by the State, and one-balf of. the community who were not employees of the State would eventually have to stand by and see the employees of tbe State compelling it to give them what they wanted.