TRAVELLING EXPENSES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19072, 17 July 1925, Page 11

TRAVELLING EXPENSES.

LOCAL BODY MEMBERS.

IMPROVED SYSTEM WANTED

fUV TELEGRAM!.—OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] HAMILTON. Thursday. Attention was drawn at a conference of local bodies to day to the frequency with which tags were attached to their balancesheets in connection with the amounts paid to members for travelling expenses. Mr. R. K. King quoted the regulations governing such payments to different kinds of local bodies, and said there was need for a uniform system. A member could get a refund for £2 10s for taxi hire, he said, but was not permitted to receive a few shillings for ordinary expenses if a car were not hired. Mr. E. Walton, Hnuraki Plains, said most of the local bodies based their expenses on a decision of Mr. Justice Williams many years ago. in which he had said that members of local bodies were entitled to actual and reasonable expenses. Local body members were supposed to give their time free, said Mr. Walton, but as most local bodies granted a uniform daily allowance of a guinea, notwithstanding that the actual expenses were often much less, the speaker thought it would: be a reasonable thing if authority were asked for the granting of an honorarium. On Mr. King's motion, it was resolved that the conference draw attention to the urgent need for a revision of the present scale of travelling expenses and allowances paid to members of local bodies on the ground that the frequent tags on tho balance-sheets clearly indicated that, th? present system was unsatisfactory and should be amended. It was also resolved that a uniform scale of reasonable travelling allowances should be paid to members of local bodies and that a draft copy of any proposed revision should be submitted to the local bodies interested for their consideration before final adoption. Tho matter is to be submitted to the Government for favourable consideration at an early date and copies of the resolutions are*to be forwarded to the members of Parliament interested.