WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 December 1933, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

PROCRESS OF PARLIAMENT

SALARIES OF MEMBERS

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, November 27. Soma members of Parliament who are ’ not' enjoying the privileges of Ministerial office and personel authority are complaining that, relatively, they are not so well cared for as the Speakers, tile Chairmen of Committees or even the Clerks of the respective branches of the Legislative Council and the House of Representatives, Times have changed, one way and another, In 1884 members of the House of Representatives residing a .distance exceeding 3 miles received £2lO a year; within 3 miles £140: in 1887, members of the Legislative Council residing beyond 3 miles received £IOO, within three miles, nil; members of tlie House, £loo,.with the addition of £SO to those residing beyond 3 miles and £ls to those within 3 miles: in 1892 members of the Legislative Council received £l5O, members of the House £240: in 1901, members of the Council £2OO and members of the House £300: in 1920, Council £350 and House £SOO, while in 1922 reductions were made, relatively, to £315 and £450 respectively.

Another (reduction of 10 (per cent, was made in 1932, after a lapse of ten years, and a third this year making an aggregate reduction of £135. The “Dominion.” presents the position with its accustomed candour. “The several members of Parliament who are reported to be hankering after a Christmas box by way of salary bonus,” it says, “ will be well advised to turn their nimble minds to more vital matters. . . .There are farmers compelled to accept for their butterfat equivalent of 77s for butter and of 47s for cheese in London. There are mothers compelled to make shift in their homes on 37s 6d a week, and less because 1 their husbands are unemployed. Can it be argued that politicians alone are entitled to have their remuneration' lifted to something more truly representing their needs and their worth?” This certainly should not be so. Members of Parliament, at any rate, seem to possess advantages their constituents do not enjoy.

Tt is a fact that the members of the New Zealand Parliament at the present, time are among the lowest paid representatives of file kind within the British Empire. They receive lower salaries than do members of the Australian State Parliament, with the exception of South Australia and Tasmania, which in this respect are not so widely burdened as is this Dominion. Members of the Australian Federal Parliament recently raised a storm of protest by increasing their salaries from £BOO to £875 a year, and it is said that the loud protest this proceeding raised is likely to prevent any further step of the kind within the Commonwealth for a very long time. The general tendency in this Dominion at the present time is rot to yards a further reduction in the salaries of members of Parliament., but rather towards substantial reductions in the numbers of members of the House of Representatives and a complete resuscitation of the Legis’gtivo Council.