THE £10 GRAB.

Otago Witness, Issue 2437, 28 November 1900, Page 71

THE £10 GRAB.

(Feoii Our Own Correspondent,) ' AUCKLAND, November "20. The Rev. Hugh ICelly, preaching at Knox Church, Parnell, 'based a forcible sermon upon the text " How much better is it to gst ■wisdom than, gold." -After a thoughtful introduction, he dealt with his main subject as follows :— " Quite recently in our colony we were witnesses of a transaction wEich. has called forth on every side the most emphatic and indignant protest's. At the close of the parliamentary session members voted themselves a bonus of £40, only 11 members out' of some 70 having the j manhood to vote against it. The pulpit is not the place for discussing politics, but it is pre-eminently the place lor the ' discus- i sion of morals. No m^n who without bias | contemplates the appropriation of that ! bonus can fail to &cc in it a decisive lowering of the national 'ideal. -On, the face of it, 'the "whole transaction was most imdignifkd. We have -just such a House as j we deserve. But by the resolution to pay themselves £40 over and above the usual honorarium our legislators completely forget the re.sp"ect due to their position. Further, one cannot shake off fihe feeling that the aci; was entirely unwarranted. I It is a moral certainty that the bonus is the Ministerial reward 'to their henchnnen for the raising of their own salaries. jHas at ceme to fjiis in»our -boasted colonial-ad-vancement, that nearly all our members i can be bought at £40 a head?_ The b'oiius lias been still more effectively damned by the defence its friends have tried to make. It is said our members had worked hard. i Did they not go to Wellington to work hard? The plea of hard work should be j scanned in the 1 light of previous sessions, j I have examined Hansard for the past 10 .years, and I find that in four different years the House sat more days and more hours than it did last session. The average daily ' sitting is more than an hour below the< \ record, and comes only fourth in order of duration. No one can claim that the work was longer or more arduous than ever bej fore. The official records frown upon the bonus. Another defence "svas that the total amount of the bonus costs us onty some s|d per head of the population. It is a lie ! It costs vs — honour. It costs vs — a lowered ideal ; a blot on the escutcheon. It costs' us the added probability that worse is hereby rendered possible. One might betray Christ,, and plead that it cost the nation only the fraction of a farthing -per head. It is costing some of "the men who took it very considerable "anxiety to reconcile it vrith the dictum of conscience. Some are ready to throw a sop to Cerberus by undertaking to distribute the money amongst charities and political societies. How easy to be generous with other people's money. The only dignified course is to pay it back -into the consolidated fund, and earn thereby the respect of the

■worthier section of tlie 'Community. We cannot serve God and mammon. The course is compulsory and clear. It is the choice betwixt wisdom and gold, between the noble and the despicable, between a national history tarnished by peculation or radiant with purity, between a future darkened by public self-seeking or strong and prosperous in the will of God."