Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, JULY 12, 1920. PAYMENT OF MEMBERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1862, 12 July 1920, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, JULY 12, 1920. PAYMENT OF MEMBERS.

Payment of members of Parliament is now so generally accepted as the correct thing by democratic communities that it seems futile to object to the principle involved. The "Mother of Parliaments," as the British Souse of Commons has been termed, was the last to fall into line with the procedure adopted by the Parliaments to which she gave birth, and which is now practically adopted by every other country, possessing self-governing powers, in-mak-ing an allowance to members by way of part payment for their services.' Members of the British House of Commons, other than those holding office in the Government, in respect of which a salary is paid, are receiving payment at the rate of £4OO per annum, but it can hardly be seriously contended that the personnel or standing of the House itself has improved since 1911, when the payment was first introduced; on the contrary, payment of members has augmented the numbers and influence of the professional politician class. The payment made to members of Parliament in the various British Dominions and States varies. The maximum payIment to members of the Canadian Legislature is 2500 dollars (£SOO per annum), while in the Commonwealth of Australia it varies from £'2oo per annum in Tasmania to £SOO in New South Wales, the members of the Commonwealth Parliament having, up to this year, received £OOO per annum byway of allowance, which amount was increased by the action of the Federal Government, a few week's ago, to £IOOO per annum. The best paid legislators in the world are, however, the members of the United States Congress, who receive an allowance of 7500 dollars (approximately £1500) per annum. Considerable resentment has been shown m Australia in connection with the raising of members' salaries to the £IOOO limit and the Ballarat election, the final 'result of which may bo expected in a few days, is likely to have an 'important bearing upon the subject, one of the three candidates having contested the seat as a protest against the action of members in voting the increase without any niandate from the electors, and without even giving them an opportunity of expressing an opinion on the subject. Here, in New* Zealand, where it is proposed to raise the members' honorarium, or salary, from £3OO to £IOO, and possibly to £SOO, the case is different. The last Parliament unanimously placed on record its opinion that the' allowances made to members were inadequate and showd b<> increased. Put it confined itself to that expression of opinion, and did not, as the Commonwealth Parliament Iras dene, vote its members a 60 per cent, increase. The electors in this country moreover acquiesced in the proposal, so that the' Government is well within the mark in preparing to raise the allowance made to members, although not so in its proposal to free such allowance "from taxation and to make it inalien.t.ble. Members of Parliament already etf.'oy certain immunities in respect of It gal proceedings which cannot be taken against them in the civil courts while Parliament Ls in session, and it i s (.vrtainly not desirable that such should be extended in the direction of exemption from taxation. That' portion of the Government proposal f°r adding to the emoluments of mem! *° rs should be abandoned. Members a're said to favour that course, hut in doi. Vg so, they have also expressed the opi tdon that the increased payment should Ihe from £3OO to £SOO per annum without taxation exemption. Such an incre vse is hardly warranted by the position t'f the country's finances, or by the serv, CCS demanded of members themselves. At most they are only required to . I >c in attendance in Parliament for fiV'° months of the year, and for the renin i"ing seven it is quite open for them to follow (as many of them do) their ordinary calling or profession. Unlike Ministers of the Crown, whose case is difl'ere nt, and who are really entitled to mtto liberal payment for their sendees, (their time and energies are not wholly taken up with administrative and legislative work, and it is very undesirable that such an increase should be made in the payment to members, as would add to the professional

politician class, which, has sprung up [around us during the last ten or twenty years to the detriment of hetter men entering the service of the country. With Ministers, whose time is fully engaged in the work of administration, the case is, as we have already indicated, different, and if anything can be advanced in justification of the proposal to exempt the salaries of members of Parliament from income taxation it is to be found in the relief which would be afforded to Ministers, who are inadequately paid for thenservices. But the principle of exempting members or Ministers from taxation is intrinsically unsound and should ha abandoned.