COSTLY JOY TRIPS

Taranaki Daily News, 10 June 1930, Page 9

COSTLY JOY TRIPS

COUNCILLORS IN PARIS. Municipal councillors in Paris hardly dare to tell even their friends, in these days, that they are going for a holiday abroad. The friends, receiving the news with a cynical smile, will probably ask: “What, another commission?” It has become a legend in Paris that anyone who wished to travel far and wide, free of cost, and at the same time “de luxe,” had only to ge himself elected to the municipal council. Paris has had commissions of the council travelling all over Europe inspecting abattoire, drainage scheme, and new garden cities, or else going as delegations to represent Paris on occasions of national or international celebrations. The Paris ratepayer, after having seen the reports of numerous such bodies simply filed as things to be forgotten, came to the conclusion that .a municipal councillor on tour was a very expensive person. And he has said so in no. measured terms. Joy-rides are, therefore, no longer encouraged, or even supported, by the ruling body of Paris. A few weeks ago one of the municipal commissions voted a credit of £240 in order’ to send M. Charles Levee, councillor for the Palais Royal district, to take part in a road congress at Washington. The Finance Commission of the municipality rejected the proposal. Now, after M. Levee has offered to pay his own expenses, it has been decided that he must not go as a representative of the city even on that condition, since it is held that such a trip “might set a dangerous precedent.”