The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Urn. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1920. POLITICIANS AND PAY.

Southland Times, Issue 18935, 23 September 1920, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Urn. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1920. POLITICIANS AND PAY.

Politicians never experience any difficulty in finding enemies, hut their latest exploit in regard to the Civil List Bill will probably increase that number with a generosity not one whit less than that with which they have treated themselves. It was generally admitted that the parliamentarian was hit as hard by the increased cost of living as any other citizen, but it is doubtful if an increase to £SOO per annum was contemplated by the public when they heard the members talking about higher pay, and it is even less likely that the idea of retrospective pay was thought of. The politician?, of coiir.se, enjoy one advantage over ail workers, TJn-y themselves fix the rate of pay and the employers and payers of ilia .-alary cannot fay anything about the matter until three years have passed. The lynic will probably congratulate himself on the fact that the members did not go for a thousand a year like the members of the Federal House in Australia, but the ordinary thoughtful citizen will wonder whether it is not high time that lie provided himself with some means of checking any further effort by the House to improve the material lim it ion of its own members. The cynic in one way is right. There is really m obstacle in the way of the members voting themselves what they like. If the House In-morrow decided to fix the scale of pay four hundred per cent higher than it is at present, the astonished taxpayer could do nothing more effective than utter dark threats of the tilings that would happen at the next election, and following on that, the House, if it thought it advisable, could postpone that election indefinitely. These tilings arc not at all likely at the present moment, but they are possible, and if the attempt was ever made to follow a course such as we have outlined, it would he too late to start, devising legislative barriers. The war has shown us that our “constitutional law" can be repealed or suspended as easily as the least import as. t. act upon theStatute Book, a position that is full of danger when we think how wide and indefinite is the charter given to the government of New Zealand under the act constituting it. The members of the Lower House at first seemed to be satisfied with an increase in their pay up to £4OO a year, but since the beginning of the upward movement there have been delays and lime for additional calculations which have resulted in an extra £IOO being put into the bill for each member. Added to this there is to

be something that looks like a Parliamen tsry Provident Fund, heavily subsidised, and a generous present of a railway ticket to each member who can last out nine years of parliamentary service. During a period of quick general elections the members will qualify for free travelling rather more rapidly, because the pass is earned by a member who sits in three parliaments. A member who has been in two parliaments will have a free railway ticket for the rest of his days added to the emoluments attachable to the Upper House and the honour of serving his country for fifteen minutes a day during sessions is an inducement to him to allow the Prime Minister of the day to pop him into the Legislative Council while the act of 1914 is still suspended. The parliamentarians may be thoroughly justified in ordering the country to pay them more than heretofore and to make the Increase retrospective, but we doubt very much if they have rightly judged public opinion in granting pensions and other privileges to members who have served a certain term. It must not be thought that a man who serves in parliament thereby secures any title to privileges placing him above his fellow men who sent him there, nor need it he argued that, these trumpery things will be sufficient to induce men, who do not now care for it, to enter the political arena. The payment of members is something that is beyond dispute in any democratic country. but the granting of free railway passes to men who have been paid for their services, have already enjoyed privileges and have Inst public support, looks too much tike giecdtnoss, especially in a country that is busily putting up railway freights and fares because its revenue is not big enough to meet additional expenditure brought on by the high cost of living. The House is enthusiastically unanimous over this measure and it does not seem likely that the Legislative Council will feel like much revisionary work, but we cannot let this occasion pass without voicing a protest against this impudent feathering of some nests for future occupancy by gentlemen who are the servants of the people and not their masters.