LEGISLATIVE EXPENDITURE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 753, 6 August 1886, Page 26

LEGISLATIVE EXPENDITURE.

The following is the report of the Legislative Expenditure Comnnititee of the House of Representatives : —Your Committee, to whom was referred the inquiry into the expenditure connected with the Legislature of the Colony, have to report that they have not only taken evidence and obtained returns and other information connected with both branches of the Legislature of the Colony, but have inquired into the working and expenditure of the legislative bodies of other countries and colonies, which evidence, information, and returns they have annexed as an Appendix to this their report. 1. Your Committee are of opinion that the number of members in each House of the Legislature can be reduced with advantage to the Colony, both in the matter of good government and saving of expense. 2. That no member of Parliament should receive any salary or payment for his services as Chairman of any Committee-. 3. I hat the amount of honorarium should m no case exceed Ll5O ; ard that members residing within a radius of ten miles from Wellington shall be entitled to receive not more than LoO. 4. That there are several officers receiving large annual salaries whose duties do not occupy them at the utmost more than six months in the year, and in some instances not more than four months ; while officers on the Hansard staff, other than the chief reporter, are only employed during session l hat there is no reason why such officers, should not be, and your Committee are convinced that they can be, fully employed for the benefit of, and with economy to, the public service. 5. i hat certain officers whose time is but partially employed, receive, in addition to salary, gratuities or bonuses for work which they should be reauired to perform as falling within the scope of their duty. 6. That the full employment of officers only partially employed will enable the Government to lessen the number oi officers without affecting the efficiency of the Government service. 7. Your Committee recommend the discontinuance of all bonuses or gratuities to officers in the public service without the sanction of Parliament. 8. . lhat no addition should be made to the salaries or any officers which are fixed by Act of parliament without the sanction of an Act of parliament. 9. That the Government should be directly responsible for all Parliamentary expenditure, and that all officers should be under the direct control of the Government. 10. Your Committee are of opinion that the cost connected with the printing generally, and of Hansard in particular, is unnecessarily large, and that the use of caligraphs by the Hansard staff has not, by reason of the inefficiency of the staff in their use, tended to decrease such expense. 11. That, with a view to encouraging the use of shorthand by officers , in the Civil Service, preference should be given to candidates able to write shorthand. 12. Your Committee would suggest that an amendment be made in the Standing Orders to ensure the continuance of business without retracing steps or repetition, as provided by thß following regulation, taken from the Procedure of the Congress, viz. .Unfinished business of the session Kale 27. page 184—After six days from the commencement of a second or subsequent session of any Congress, all Bills, resolutions, and "reports which originated in the House and remained undetermined at the close of the last preceding session shall be in order of action, and all business before Committees of the House at the end of one session shall be resumed at the commencement of the next session of the same Congress in the same manner as if no adjournment had taken place.