The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 18, 1891.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 9190, 18 September 1891, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 18, 1891.

The "Payment of Members Bill" having been thrown out by the Legislative Council, we shall now 866 what steps the House and the Ministry will take ia the matter. The Government are evidently anxious to bring the session to a close, whilst the Labor members are desirous to fill their pockets with as much of the taxpayers' money as they can. Whether the lattor will try to bring pressure on the Mini* ry to force a bill through the House in the form intimated in the resolution passed by the Legislative Council, that the members of that Chamber were willing to accede to, we (io not know; but the electors will not fail to inform those members who voted for tho Payment of Members Bill when they return to their homes that they disapprove of their conduct. We will do the Premier the justice to believe that he never was in favor of the me^Hure. He knows well that the members of his party were returned on the- "retrenchment ticket," and it was a disgrace to the thirty members to force the bill through the House. The arguments they used in support of the measure are most illogical, and mere excuses lor "grabbing" a lot of the hard-earned money of the taxpayers, which they are not entitled to., Fifty pounds a month, and a free pass on the railways, has been proved conclusively to be sufficient remuneration for a member, but to wish to add between £11,000 to £12,000 additional expense to the Legislature shows that they are making use of their position for dipping into the colonial puree in order to remunerate themselves. One of the Labour members frankly admitted, the more shame to him, that if the bill did not pass he would, after the session, have to go back to work ; as if it was degrading on his part to earn an honest living. The sum set apart already for a member of the House is as much, we expect, as he ever earned in twelve months at his trade, and now, because he has by an accident been pitched into the House, he considers the taxpayers should keep him in idleness for three years. The lowest type of a public man is the professional politician; for any man who has to make a livelihood by politics is placed m constant temptation to betray tho trust repoßod in him by the constituencies, and to be " professional politicians" the labour members aspire All who voted for the '-Payment of Members Bill" will, therefore, be looked upon as having deceived the electors who put them in their present position, for all their actions show that self-interest has been predominant, instead of the interest they should have in the welfare of the colony.

Mr Garry's juvenile minßtrel troupe met with a good reception at Manaia on Thursday night: They play ia Hawera to-nijrht, and return home tv -morrow momjpg. '