The New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 1913. THE TRAVELLING FEVER

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8457, 17 June 1913, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 1913. THE TRAVELLING FEVER

When one recalls the angry vehemence with which the Hon. W* F. Massey was accustomed to denounce tho banqueting peregrinations of Liberal Minister? and the bitter persistence with which he perennially demanded returns of their travelling allowances with the object of showing that they supplemented their incomes from this source, it becomes difficult to reconcile his virtuous indignation of those days with the practice of himself and his colleague? in office. If it is really a fact, as Mr Massey was fond of suggesting, that the Ministerial honorarium may be substantially augmented by these allowances when travelling, what are we to think of the touring record of the “Reform” Cabinet during the last twelve months? It has been exceptional, as our readers are aware, to find two of the Ministers in Wellington, attending to departmental duties, at one and the same time. There is scarcely a hole or corner in tho Dominion to which they have not been, drawn thither by a banqueting invitation or some other paltry excuse, and a full meeting of Cabinet to discuss and determine .matters of moment has boon something approaching an impossibility. Of course, there are capable XJnder-Secretaries, who really after all discharge the public business, and that efficiently, while the control of the Civil Service, which was formerly in the hands of Ministers, is now attended to by Commissioners. That, however, is not tho point. Mr Massey was accustomed to regard this annual return of travelling allowances, which he demanded with volleys of invective, as the evidence of a particularly grass and despicable form of corruption. Do the “Reform” Ministers draw travelling allowances? If they do, seeing tho extent to which they have been touring the country, tho bill must already be a pretty extensive one. If they do not, they are entitled to be regarded as political philanthropists. We are afraid, however, that their protests against what they were pleased to regard as extravagance by the Liberals were inspired by feelings of envy more than by any desire for greater economy, and the enthusiasm with which they have given themselves over to the enjoyment of this seductive brand of the sweets of office contrasts strikingly with their condemnation of the similar more moderate indulgences of their predecessors in office. However, it is well, as the Hon. P. M. B. Fisher says, that Ministers should make a practice of “circulating like coins. 1 ' But there is a time for touring, even at the public expense, and a time for feasting, but that time is not the present, whfen is the week before the opening of the session. Notwithstanding this latter fact, which should ho sufficient to prompt Ministers to stay in Wellington and prepare something in the way of a policy for submission to Parliament, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, tho two most responsible members of Cabinet, have gone off to Otago to attend yet another banquet, the thousand and twenty-fifth of the series; the Hen. Mr Herdman is supposed to be away on the West Coast electioneering; the Hon. Mr Rhodes is somewhere in the back-blocks; tho Hon. W. H. Herries is packing his bag for Blenheim, probably with a view to a further banquet; and nobody knows where on earth Dr Pomare is. And this is the Ministry that scorned banquets, and regarded travelling allowances as unpardonable corruption; end also that pledged itself, if placed in office, to stay in Wellington and attend seriously to the business of the country. Only a fortnight agq, when tho Hons. WT F. Massey and James Allen were coming down from Auck. land, tho-Qrdihajy-oxpross .wae not good

enough for them. They must have a “special,” leaving an hour or two later, notwithstanding that it involved considerable expense. Contrast this with the bitter criticism that Mr Massey was wont to level at the late Mr Sadden when, in the latter’s busiest period —and ho was a busy man—he used a special train instead of the ordinary. These things, of course, are irreproachable when they arc done hy “Reform,” but if the other party attempts them they are the proofs of corrupt extravagance. Mr Massey professed to regard Iho return of Ministerial travelling allowances as one of the most im. poftant matters brought before Parliament. That being so, it remains to bo seen whether ho will lay on the table of tho Houso a return of the travelling allowances drawn by himself and his colleagues without waiting to ho asked for ( it.