BUSINESS MEN IN PARLIAMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 27 October 1928, Page 6

BUSINESS MEN IN PARLIAMENT

OBSTACLES IN THE WAY (“Nineteen Twenty-Eight Committee”) It lies been suggested, tentatively, that if tlie honorarium of members of the House of Representatives were substantially increased business men of standing in the country would be less disinclined to seek admission to tlie political arena than they are under the existing | conditions. ‘‘We cannot bid against private business,” says a competent authority on this subject, “but we can <ro so far as to offer a reasonable competence to the man who is prompted by a desire to serve. We can make it possible for him to do so without his drawing heavily upon private means or unduly penalising his family. This should not make politics more professional. Rather it should increase the independence by widening the area of selection. There are probably many men who would agree to serve without any expectation of profit if they could think that the privilege of serving would not involve them in heavy loss.” The experience of the last three or four decades, however, scarcely justifies the assumption that business men of outstanding ability would be induced fo engage in the hurly-burly of politics by the prospect of securing a higher honorarium than the one dispensed to members of the House of Representatives at ihc present timo. HONORARIUM AND SERVICE The cash payment io members of the House in 1887' was £IOO, with an addition of £SO to those residing beyond three miles from Wellington, and of £ls to those residing within three miles of the capital city. In 1892 tho honorarium was raised to £240; in 1901 to £300; and in 1920 to £SOO. In 1922, on account of the general financial stringency prevailing at the time, it was reduced to £450.- Both business and politics have undergone many changes since 1887, and notwithstanding tlie fact that members’ honorariums have been trebled during the interval, and their perquisites more than trebled, there are many fewer prominent business men in the House to day than there were forty years ago. This need bo no disparagement to the present House, nor to any of its predecessors, but it sets one speculating as to what kind of “reasonable competence” would induce the head of .a big mercantile concern to embark upon a political career demanding the greater part of bis time during at least four months of the year. This is not lo say that tho business man is any less ready fo givo his services to the country than are the farmer and the lawyer to givo theirs, but simply that the business man does not enjoy the opportunities that do the farmer and the lawyer. THE ALTERNATIVE There is another point in connection with this subject which is worth mentioning. With the passage of the years a general election has become moro and more simply a means of determining which of the contending parties shall govern the country. Tho political views

of the candidates are of much less consequence in the eves of the great majority of the electors than are their leadings towards-one particular party or another.-- This state of affairs is not peculiar lo New Zealand. It is perhaps even more pronounced in the Mother Country than it is here. A Royal Commission set up in England some years ago to lepoit upon the electoral system then in vogue appears to have accepted it as inevitable. "A <T C n(>i-al election is in fact considered by a large portion of the electorate of the country,” it is reported, “as practically a referendum on (Tin question which of two Governments shall be returned lo power.” With this idea pervading the community, and infecting Parliament itself, what could a business man, even with an honorarium of a thousand a year, hope to do towards enlarging the vision of the contending parties? The only useful, alternative in view seems to be for tlie Government to keep in touch with business and give reasonable attention to its representations.