IMPERIAL MINISTERS' SALARIES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 17 August 1910, Page 7

IMPERIAL MINISTERS' SALARIES.

During the debate on the proposed raising of the status and salary of the President of the Local GovernmentBoard the Right Hon. T. Lough. Liberal member for Islington, said the proposal really was to increase the salary of two Ministers. That was contrary to the principles which they as <a party professed. He would remind them that they had ' fifty-rive. Ministers, in the two Houses,, who received £168.000 a year. There were 40 in the House of Commons, who divided amongst them £l£/.COO. On the one -hand was a little band of dignified persons, who work, ed very little harder than the general body of the House, drawing this vast fum. while on the other there were some f.OO members who get nothing .at all. There were several posts which might be swept out of existence. The.ti, why should they assume, if £2COO was too little, that they must jump up to £5000? Thev did it in >a s-rjirit of reckless ex-

travagance, which was- bringing the House of Commons into disgrace in the country, and which, he was afraid, his friend- on the Treasury benches had notdone .as much as they might have done to .check. What influenced him was the further step which was being taken in the aggrandisement of Ministers, which was effecting the ruin of the House of Commons. The Prime Minister had thrown this large question to the House like a bone to a dog. However unworthy they might be. they still represented it-lie House of Commons. They were not paid, and why should they be bullied by their paid servants? The proposal was one for the Aggrandisement of Ministers, and would increase an evil rrom which the were already suffering to a great extent in that House. Government in England was 'becoming a huge bureaucracy, and they were taking a long step towards strengthening the chains which this bureaucracy was placing on the freedom of the country. They were increasing the spirit of .snobbishness and servility which was doing so much harm in the House of Commons. He made no reflection on Mr. 11 urns, who u-o-s genial and hardworking, but he uomplained that the House was being asked to treat a great question hurriedly and unsatisfactorily.