SALARIES OF MINISTERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20988, 26 September 1931, Page 8

SALARIES OF MINISTERS.

SAVING OF £2106 A YEAR. EFFECT OF SMALLER CABINET. [BY TELEGRAPH. —SPECIAL REPORTER.] WELLINGTON, Friday. By reducing the membership of the Cabinet from 14 to 10, the Coalition Government will save at the rate of £2106 a year in Ministerial salaries, in spite of the fact that all 10 members of the new Cabinet are paid and that two Ministers in the United Government received no remuneration. Under the Civil List Act, 1920, provision is made for an annual vote of £13,000 for the payment of salaries to 10 members of the Executive Council, none of whom was to receive more than £I3OO. This was apart from the Prime Minister's salary, which was then fixed at £2OOO. As a result of the imposition of two 10 per cent, cuts, however, the Prime Minister's salary is now £1620 and the maximum that a Minister can receive has been reduced to £1053.

Under an amendment to the Act in 1926, certain concessions were made for the Native Minister and Minister for the Cook Islands, enabling him to draw the same salary as European Ministers. This consideration brought the salary bill of the United Cabinet of 12 paid Ministers up to £13,203, including the amount of the Prime Minister's allowance. There are nine Coalition Ministers in addition to the Prime Minister. Each receives £1053, the maximum to which he is entitled, so that with the Prime Minister's salary, the total expenditure is £11,097. Taken over a full year, therefore, the reduction on the salaries of Ministers is £2106.