COST OF PARLIAMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 191, 13 August 1931, Page 5

COST OF PARLIAMENT.

Should Number of Members be Cut Down? OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS. (Special to the “ Star.”) WELLINGTON, August 12. A suggestion from the member for the I Bay of Plenty, Mr Williams, that ParI'amend should start any curtailment j of the personnel of governing bodies by j paying attention to itself, was promptly condemned by the next speaker. Mr Williams mentioned the intention of the Government to appoint a commission to investigate the local government system with a view to reducing the number of local authorities. He thought that if this were done it would be only fair to the taxpayer to see whether it was not possible to reduce the overhead charges of Parliament by cutting down the number of members. There were four Native members, who had enormous districts to travel over, but they never complained, therefore he thought it would be fair to look at the position of Parliament as well as that of local bodies, not only in connection with the number of members, but general charges. All parties had been responsible for the growth of expenditure, because everybody asked for something, so expense crept , up. Mr H. T. Armstrong (Labour, Christchurch East) presented another viewpoint. There were, he said, eighty members of the House when the population of the Dominion was less than one-third its present total. On the population basis of representation the tendency should be to increase the number of representatives rather than decrease them. He noticed that at a recent meeting of farmers, when this subject came up, and the leader of the Opposition pointed out that the size of many country constituencies was already quite large enough, it was suggested by one representative of the primary producers, “ We should not interfere with country representation but cut down city members.” A Labour member: That’s the stuff \ Mr Armstrong: The members represent human beings, and if the number is reduced it should be based on representation of men, women and children, not sheep and cattle.