THE SALARIES OF MINISTERS OF STATE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4319, 30 March 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE SALARIES OF MINISTERS OF STATE.

There are some curious discrepancies about, the salaries attaching to the offices iu the Ministry.,. Thus the most important- of all, the Premiership, carries uo emolument, and indeed no precedence, and the.holder of.it invariably fills some- other position. v.Lord Salisbury has, except for a. .brief neriod when he was ;First Lord of the .Treasury, always attached to the chieftainship the Foreign Office. v Mr. Gladstone,, when lie was. not First Lord of the-Treasury, was generally Chancellor of tho Exchequer, and in his last Ministry he added to the former the sinecure of Lord Privy Seal (of course 'without extra remuneration), which Lord Salisbury is now to occupy. Can anyone; explain that while the Secretary -for War -gets £SOOO, the; First Lord of the Admiralty receives £SOO less, except bn the ground that all Her Majesty’s Secretaries of State arri paid the same salary? The most highly-paid position is that Of Lord-Lieutenant 6f -Ireland, £20,000, but then there are social daties attaching to that office rind consequent expenses which do not apply in other cases. V 1

•The , Lord Chancellor gets £lo,ooo— of widen is, as judge of the liighest Court ofcApp.GJiJ, anfl the other as diair■jnan of the .-House of Lords—a generous remuneration. The Loyd Chancellor of Ireland receives £2OOO less, and I his ..duties are-.wholly judicial, unless he is in the Cabinet, as the present occupant of the''post!is.- £2OOO is the usual: salary for such minor posts ns head of the Board of Trade, the Local Government Board, the Boards of -Agriculture, Education, and' Works, while the Postmast-er-General; ' the director of the higge l ' business in the kingdom, is repaid wi £2600., Gentleman- who hold the positions of Under-Socrotary in the various Departments dre. paid from £ISOO to .£2OOO. On the whole, it cannot he said that wb pay our professional politicians handsomely, unless they' hold legal offices. Probably the: whole., amount pawl to Mr Gladstone during his Parliamentary career from : the Exchequer would not have-represented more thain a. few years’ ' income it he had tuyncfl manufacturer instead of devoting his life to the service of~Kift"country. It is unnecessary' ; to say that'there are other compensations. - : ' i ‘ :