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New Zealand Mail, Issue 602, 18 August 1883, Page 15

The question of payment of members of the House of Representatives will have to come on for discussion before the end of the present session, and probably a large majority of honorable members will vote that they are worth at least two hundred guineas each for three months’ work in the year. We use the term “ payment of members ” advisedly, for it is palpable nonsense to talk about “honoraria,” when gentlemen name the sum they have earned, and compel the country to pay if. The advisability of the arrangement must be a matter of doubt to all disinterested persons who look into the subject. Theory seems as conclusively in favor of it, as practice has been conclusively against it. It has been argued that the laborer is worthy of liis hire, and that as ali work worth calling by the namr is deserving of being paid for, surely the work of governing a country, which requires as much thought, anxiety, and exertion as any kind of effort, perhaps more, ought to be not merely paid for, but paid for well. On the other hand, experience has shown in this colony, in "Victoria, and in France, that somehow the best men do not come to the front on the payment system ; but that, on the contrary, the social, intellectual, and moral status of a Parliament is deteriorated. Who is there who w ould assert that the House of Representatives at the present time comprises men of a higher, or even of as high a stamp as those of twenty or twenty-five years ago ? The same question may be asked with regard to the Victorian Assembly, and the result will be the same, that there has been a manifest falling off—not an improvement. There must be a flaw somewhere in the reasoning which makes a paid Parliament the best. Perhaps it is the fact that the best kinds of services of all are those which no amount of remuneration will pay for or procure. Ten thousand a year would not secure us a Hampden or Pym, a Pitt, Peel, Palmerston or Gladstone when we wanted him. We fail to see in our present House of Representatives one solitary poor man of genius who has been brought to light by payment of members, and induced to take part in the work of legislation.

But, if payment of members of the Lower House of Legislature has only doubtful claims to our respect, what shall be said with regard to payment of members of the Upper House ? Any such payment is obviously a scandalous waste of the public money, which would be far better bestowed elsewhere. Why, practically speaking, the one claim which members of our Legislative Council possess to their present position, besides that of being strong party men, is that they have money. What other qualifications have they? Not the manifested respect or regard of their associates, for they never have been elected. Not superior intelligence, for the majority of them have long been a by-word and a reproach in that respect. Not high social standing, for we have little enough of that anywhere, and certainly no man in his senses would dream of looking for it specially in the Legislative Council. Not hard legislative work, for all they do is only a mere fraction of the not very oppressive labors of House of Representatives. But they have got money, and so we pay them ; give them still more money. With regard to this very matter the sordid meanness of their greed and their gross vulgarity have sufficiently manifested themselves in their recent debate on this very subject. Mr Pharazyn, who honorably distinguished himself lately from his peers by voting against this payment, was not merely interrupted and silenced by the mob of moneygrubbers, but also insulted with gibes and insults which it was no credit to level at an old gentleman past eighty years of age, and no more than themselves disqualified by the laws of his country from sitting among them, and expressing his opinions. Mr Pharazyn is not- a great statesman, but neither do they belong to that class, and the display of animus on the occasion of the debate referred to did little credit to an Upper House of Legislature. We trust, however, that henceforth the public funds will be no longer squandered on the payment of those who have never deserved it, either personally, or by the quality or quantity of their work.