SHARING BEGINS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 119, 21 April 1936, Page 6

SHARING BEGINS

ministerial salaries. THE CAPACITY TO SERVE. < B » ' r ' ,e,r^EfeV°Ap l S|^ sharing” commenced to operate m i spect to Labour Ministersi and mm .bers’ salaries on April 1, and ri distribution will shortly take place. It is understood that the Speaker s_Bpe clal emolument is to be ° the arrangement owing t 0.,% calls on his .purse for Tiospitahty dui ing the session, and the fact that lie has to maintain his residence m laiiiament Building during that period. Another very interesting variation ot the sharing scheme is that it takes regard of income which may be earned l,v a Labour member by some outside activity. This is not prohibited, although the ideal of salary sharing, is to make the representative s position a whole-time job. However, there are members who, without interfering with their efficiency in the legislative sphere, have private business responsibilities, and if these bring in some income, it is assumed under the skating scheme that the extent of that income is ti measure of reduced contribution in service to the work of administration. However, there is a limit to the deduction to be made, from the pool on account of outside income, so that the highly prosperous member is not in danger of losing all his. official salurv. The general effect ot salary sharing between Ministers 1 and menibeis.is that the latter improve their financial position by approximately £IOO per anmun, while Ministers £4OO to £SOO less than the Civil List prescribes, the difference between Labinet Ministers and their rank and file colleagues being about £IOO per annum, though the Prime Ministers net salary will be quite £ioo less than that which he is officially entitled to I obtain. . ! Every member of the party is exj pected to take an active part in adj ministration, in association with one or other of the Cabinet Ministers/ but this grouping method has not been ! advanced very far. More than half the Government members are new to Parliament and to administration; therefore their capacity and aptitude i for various types of duty have yet to | be estimated, a process which is expected to take the whole of the' present session. Some members who have indicated preferences for certain types of work, involving association with more than one Minister, have been informed that each member of Cabinet will have an associated group, but that members may not activeiy participate in the work of more than one group. Select committees of the House ot Representatives constitute a good trying-yut sphere for individual aptitudes, and the Labour members have been allocated with some regard tor their future position ill Ministerial groups, although this cannot he taken as a final adjustment. Tile Prime Minister, who is not responsible tor any ot the facts published above, confirmed the "Standard's”' correspondent’s view that salary pooling had commenced, adding that liiemI bers would be gradually associated I with -Ministers just as their services ! can be utilised. ”It is not a thing which can be rushed into being at a moment’s notice,” 'lie concluded, “but we will gradually absorb all of them, and make them feel that they are all filling their part in the government of the country.'’.