The Star. "FRIDAY, JULY 29, 1887. A DANGEROUS CRAZE. MISTAKEN RETRENCHMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5992, 29 July 1887, Page 3

The Star. "FRIDAY, JULY 29, 1887. A DANGEROUS CRAZE. MISTAKEN RETRENCHMENT.

It is a biskt thino to handle a mad dog. It is sometimes dangerous to try and stop a .runaway horse, excited to the verge of madness with terror. It may bo equally dangerous for us to try and put the brake on the wild cry for indiscriminate -Retrenchment, whioh echoes through the land at the prcsenla moment. We shall run tie risk, however, because we kh6w wo are right, and that we speak in tho interests of tho people. But. wo do not wish to be misunderstood. A large decrease must, and will be made, in the cost oi Government. The people hn.-vp spokeny and their rulera will obey. Tha real point to fee deoided is-— how to maTie that retrenchment without hurting the public interests. We propose to show that one of the cries tbat has recently beeu most artfully and persistently fomented by a certain claes of reformers, will, if} carried out, be dangerous to the true interests of the people.

The cry we speak of is the movement to largely reduce the cost of th<& Legislator" This is to be carried out in two ways ; first, by reducing the number of niercbera in both Houses, and next byieducing their pay. All sorts of proposals are before the public. The proposed reduction in number, ranges from about twenty per cent down to one half of the present roll j and the proposed reduction in pay from *£50 down to no pay at all. These proposals, we repeat, are a grave mistake, and if carried out to any large extent will" prove dangerous to the welfare of the mass of the people.

Tbat the present number of members | may seem, to a casual observer, too large | for the limited populatidn of the Colony, is I not surprising. But merely to assert that ninety-one membera for a population of six hundred thousand people is necessarily excessive, is a scant way of treating the Bubjeot. New Zealand is not to be compared, from this point of view, with any of the Australian Colonies. Those have all been colonised from one centre, and to that centre all the out distriot3 gravitate. This Colony was originally settled from Bix separate centres — Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellingjton, Nelson, Canterbury, and Obagoj and from these have nince branched off Napier, Marlborough, Westiand, ond Southland. So that now there are ten separate centres of settlement, towards each of which the out districts gravitate. To compare, therefore, the representative wants of New Zealand with, say those of Victoria or South Australia, whose capital cities are tho centres of each whole Colony, ia entirely misleading. The best way to judge how far it is possible to largely reduce the present number of memberßin tho New Zealand Parliament, would be to call a conference of half a dozen leading representatives of tho several electoral districts in eaoh Provincial district, to consider a reduction to one half its present number, and to report to the electors for their decision. We venture to say that it would bo found impossible to make the reduction without inflicting great wrong upon many districts. And if tho process waa attempted to be carried out, tbe voice of tho people would Boon bo expressed clearly against the change. The country having been more or less settled from one end to the other, and having had ita system of local government destroyed—and not yet f ully restored —by tho sudden abolition of the Provinces and their Governments, the need of a large numerical representation in Wellington ia absolute and imperative. To cut down tho number of members to any serious extent, would bo to leave the outlying districts at the mercy of the chief towns.

An equally grave error for tho people to mako, is not to pay their mcmberß a reason - Ablo compensation for their services. To refuse to pay them altogether, would lead to the inevitable result that only rich men would bo found in both Houses of Assembly. The rule in Great Britain, up to the present time, has been to resist the paymont of members j and , the conse-

quence is that the House of Commons is filled with plutocrats. One notable consequence of the non-payment system is that the United Kingdom has the most costly system of government in the whole world. Another is that every great measure of popular reform carried out during the present century has taken from five to five-and-twenty years to reach a successful issue. Turn from this to the great Republic of America. Though now the wealthiest country in the world, its government is conducted more economically, and at less cost, than that of any of tho great countries of Europe. Tet this far-seeing Democratic nation recognises the wisdom of paying its legislators in a princely way for the services they render. The seventy-four senators, and the three hundred and twenty-five members of the House of Representatives, eaoh receive five thousand dollars, or a thousand pounds a year. This outlay iB recognisod by the people of the United States as wise. The poorest man in tho community, who has ability, and can command the confidence of his fellow-men, feels that he is not throwing his prospects utterly away when he devotes his time and talents to the Bervice of his country.

The representatives of this Colony are now paid two hundred guineas a year. The cry raised is to reduce this to a hundred and fifty, or even a hundred. A favourite proposal seems to be that the members of the Legislative Council are to receive nothing. We venture to say that these proposals are silly as well as dangerous to the interests of the people. They are silly, because it is a foolish thing to expect men to givo up their time and talents — to contest elections, to consult at ali times the various interests of their constituents, to study law and politics, to leave their homes for many months at a strefcch,to neglect their business, to sit day andnightreadytospeak at all hours and at any moment, to do all this and much more — iE thoy do their duty — and to pay for so doing out of their own pockets. The labourer ia worthy of his hire j and if men d_ their duty in the Assembly, they deserve to be adequately rewarded.

But the proposal not to pay members adequately, is worse than silly — it is dangerous. Tho effect will certainly be to shut out the poor man, and leave the representation entirely in the hands of the rich. Those only would go to Wellington who wore independent enough to pay the cost out of their own pockets, or who were base enough to accept payment from the rich to represent their interests. Do the working men in town or country want to be told what the result of this would be ? Half the legislation of e,very session involves to some extent the antagonistic interests of labour and capital.The incidence of taxation, the settlement and disposal of the land, the education of the people and its cost, the promotion of local industries as against theinterests of foreign capitalist importers, all these and many more important questions affect most vitally the interests of the people. We venture to affirm, without fear of contradiction, that if left to the decision of an Assembly composed in both Houses solely of men of property, they would not be decided as the people would wish.

Lot not the olectors be deceived by this cry of reduction in the pay of their representatives. Thoso who advocate it most strongly are not their true friends. What we have said above, applies with equal force to the Upper House, It is a popular delusion, that this Chamber is composed solely [of rich men. Like tho world at largo, it ! contains both rich and' poor. Unlike tho world, the rich are perhaps in a majority. Anyono wiio will take tha trouble to enquire iato the composition of this Chamber, and _tudy its proceedings, will observe very curious results. The voting might seem to be ruled almost by acres. The man of many acres is, as a rule, always to be found on the antipopular side of every question. The power of the Legislative Chamber to obstruot popular measures is already very great. Strike off the honorarium altogether, and • the Chamber would at once be attended only by those rich men who could afford to leave their business and homes and pay the cost of spending three or four months of the year in Wellington. Th_n the Chamber -ivouid speedily be.onie a serious obstruction to all wise and progressive legislation . Again we 6ay, let not the electors be deceived by A DANGEROUS CRAZE.