THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1907. UNDESIRABLE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8998, 7 December 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1907. UNDESIRABLE.

In several post-sessional speeches reference has been made to the inadequacy of the pay of members, and these references, taken in conjunction with hints thrown out during the session, lead to the supposition that an effort will be made in the near future to increase the "honoraria" of members of both Houses of Parliament. It does not seem unlikely, also, from what Sir Joseph Ward and others have said recently, that the duration of future sessions may be fixed at six months. The longer session will, of course, be held to warrant a larger pay. There does not appear to us to be any valid argument in favour of either longer sessions or increased pay to members; rather is there a good deal to be said against both. The inordinate length of the sessions is due to the scandalous waste of time on the part of members in the earlier weeks of the assembly, and this again is due to the practice of the Government in keeping back its more important and controversial measures until the latest possible moment. Both these undesirable conditions are easy of amendment. The Ministry could, and ought in the interest of the country, to have all its policy bills down within the first fortnight or three weeks of the meeting of Parliament. The measures are usually ready, but

are withheld for party purposes, or to j be forced through the House when members are weary. The waste of time would be avoided to a large extent if these bills were on the orderpaper at an early date, and for the rest, members could be kept within bounds by more stringent standing orders. That members are entitled to be fairlv remunerated for their loss of time while attending to the business of the country no one in this democratic dominion will gainsay, though it is to be observed that in pre-Seddon days, when the payment was much smaller than it is to-day, our Parliaments were superior to what they have since been. It was never intended that seats in Parliament should be so many billets for impecunious colonists, and the original idea of voting an honorarium was to recoup the expenses of members during the session. At present the amount paid to members of the House of Representatives is ■£3oo a year and to members of the j Upper House £2OO. These payments arc sufficiently high, and to add to them would, in our opinion, be doing a wrong to the country. It would not improve the character of the representation; it would be more likely to result in the retention longer than desirable of a Government which may have lost the confidence of the country; for the higher the pay the less likely would members be to risk a dissolution. Higher remuneration to me.nbers, therefore, would play into the hands of the Government of the day. Furthermore, there would be a danger of lengthening the duration of Parliaments. This has already been vaguely hinted at, It ia doubtful if the Government would object to either increased honoraria or fouryearly Parliaments. It is well that the constituencies should know the trend of events, so that they may not eventually be taken by surprise.