THE PARLIAMENTARY BONUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20426, 30 November 1929, Page 16

THE PARLIAMENTARY BONUS.

Sir, —The leaders of the several political parties constituting the House of Representatives having made statements about the rnuch-talked-of increase in Civil Service salaries, it is noteworthy that the official reply to the Leader of the Oppositiou by tiie Prime Minister, as printed in Wednesday's Herald, concludes with an extract from Hansard, which, Sir Joseph Ward says, was a statement made on his behalf by the acting-leader of the House toward the close of the session. It reads: " We sympathise with the public servants, particularly with the lower-paid men, but we are up against a financial stringency, and we have to'recognise that the interests of the country as a whole come before any one section. J. he Government at once proceeded to give tangible proof of this sentiment by sponsoring a move to pay an extra £IOO apiece to the members themselves, by way of "bonus." Thus were "the interests (of the representatives) "of the country as a whole put before the interests of any one section," and it cost a mere few thousands to do it. Jj.YV.li. Kihikihi.