THE FORTY POUNDS VOTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11533, 19 November 1900, Page 3

THE FORTY POUNDS VOTE.

SEVERE CRITICISM BY THE REV. HUGH KELLY.

The Rev. Hugh Kelly, preaching at Knox Church, Parnell, last night, based a forcible sermon upon the text, "How much better is it to get wisdom than gold" (Proverbs xvi. 16). After a thoughtful introduction he dealt with his main subject, as follows: —" Quite recently in our colony we were witnesses of a transaction which has called forth on every side the most emphatic and indignant protests. At the close of the Parliamentary session members voted themselves a bonus of £-10, only 11 members out of some 70 having the manhood to vote against. The pulpit is not the place for discussing politics, but it is pre-eminently the place for the discussion of morals. No man, who, without bias, contemplates the appropriation of that bonus, can fail to see in it a decisive lowering of the national ideal. On the face of it, the whole transaction was most undignified. A visitor to the House of Representatives is pleased to observe some evidence of decorum. The Speaker, in his robes, ana bands, is seated in his chair, and members bow to him as they enter or leave. The House has established a creditable reputation for the manner in which its business is generally conducted, and although there is much room for improvement in the personnel of many of the members, it may be taken as fairly representing the community. We have just such a House as we deserve. But, in the resolution to pay themselves £40 over and above the usual honorarium, our legislators completely forgot the respect due to their position. Further, one cannot shake off the feeling that the act was entirely unwarranted. These members of Parliament are our servants, not our masters. What would you think of a servant, who, without permission, and without ever saying, by your leave,' helped himself out of your purse to a bonus of £10? What weighs with a judge and jury is legal proof, and what weighs with the public mind is moral certainty. And it is a moral certainty that the £40 bonus is the"Ministerial reward to their henchmen for the raising of their own salaries. Has it come to this in our boasted colonial advancement that nearly all our members can be bought at £40 a head? Is not the suspicion raised that in similar positions individuals, or syndicates, may have any legislation they wish, provided they are prepared to pay for it? The bonus has been still more effectively damned by the defence its friends have tried to make. It is said our members had worked hard. Did they not go to Wellington to work hard? The plea of hard work should be scanned in the light of previous sessions. 1 have examined Hansard for the past 10 years, and I find that in four different years the House sat more days and more hours than it did last, session. The average daily sitting is more than an hour below the record, and comes only fourth in order of duration. No one can claim that the work was longer or more arduous than ever before. The official records frown upon the bonus. Another defence was that the total amount of the bonus costs us only some 5Jd per head of the population. It is a lie! It costs us honour. It costs us a lowered ideal, a blot on the escutcheon. It costs us the added probability that worse is hereby rendered possible. One might betray Christ, and plead that it cost the nation only the fraction of a farthing per head. It is costing some of the men who took it very considerable anxiety to know how to reconcile it with the dictum of conscience. Rome are ready to throw a sop to Cerberus by undertaking to distribute the money amongst charities and political societies. How easy to be generous with other people's money! Let them remember that robbery for burnt offering can never do aught else than stink in the nostrils of honest men. More money is likely to mean more political leverage, more party power. The only' dignified course is to pay it back into the Consolidated Fund, and earn thereby the respect of the worthier section of the" community. We cannot serve God and mammon. The course is compulsory and clear. It is the choice betwixt wisdom and gold, between the noble and the despicable, between a national history, tarnished by peculation or radiant with purity, between a future darkened by public self-seeking, or strong and prosperous in the will of God."

Mr. George Fowlds, M. H.R., has handed his £40 to the Society for the Protection of Women and Children, with the following let- | ter to Mr. 11. Wilding, the chairman : — I Enclosed please find Government cheque j for £40, being bonus voted by the House of I Representatives. As I disapprove of the j manner in which this vote was passed, I [ have considered carefully how I should disI pose of my portion, and have come to the j decision that I cannot do better than give it ;to your society. As you are aware, I pre- | sented a petition to the Premier, signed by | all the vice-presidents and members of your I committee, asking for a subsidy to your I funds from the Consolidated Revenue, and j failed to get anything. Being fully con- | vinced that your society is as much entitled | to assistance as many other societies are who I do receive it, I have no hesitation in doing J with this money which has come under my | control what I think the Government ought j to have done. I have much pleasure, therefore, in handing you the cheque."