LUXURIOUS LEGISLATORS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11476, 6 February 1905, Page 4

LUXURIOUS LEGISLATORS.

The comforts provided for ' New Zealand legislators seem to be nothing compared to. the luxury, into w.hicTi an- American sc^iator sinks when •he goes to Washington. A ' writer in Pearson's Magazine states that in 1878 a senator was provided, from the public, treasury,, in addition to. his salary, -with his, .travelling CX7 .penscs, oue ( hundred, and twenty-five/.dol-lars for, stationery) and" one clerk; ' if~he happened '' to be Chairman of a'Comririttee. But at the p'resenfrjtime "a.Tjnited States ' senator would " snif£°.at one « clerk, and. declare it impossible "to .'attend "to, his work without two or three." Up- to a' few years ago senators paid clerk's out of their own pockets, but this .would.. now be. considered a crime. To-day.-, every,- sonator has at least one . clerk who draws his salary from the Government, aii'd each senator on the majority side, and* most of the Democrats; has a private room, while each important Committee Chajxm'au has one or. two, or three assistants. Cases exist, indeed', of ' clerks who ■ never come to Washington- at all." Tlie seiidtor of to-day has^many luxuries, Besides the superabundance of patronage and, clerical and other assistance." -He -is shaved, and bathed free of -expense' by. the' most skilled workmen, who use the most delicate' 'soap, perfumes, dyes .and pomades.'./ "His ; maii/-i3 delivered by' Senate officials three tlines a day, he has telegraph and .telephone services of the • most complete kind -at his elbow, and he can send • all official correspondence" free." In. th > e"'"page3 of a Very recent report of the Secretary of the. Senate, it is found that - a senator irom Georgia did not use that year one cent of his ' stationery allowance?" "but "• drew .' -the entire amount in cash.' Somebody else consumed five pounds of Copenhagen snuff, the. silver inkstand on. the tlesk of the Acting Vice-president cost ninety dollars (each outgoing Vice-president" *t«kes the ink-stand as a souvenir),' .mirrors costing 200 dollars each wejre suspended Jbver the mantels, clocks cost.- on an-^yerage forty dollars each, and . ordinary straight back chairs were made' at 'fofty"-sex4u'*dol-lars each. . The writer may well describe the fund from which such expenditures are paid., as '.'an inexhaustible, . bottomless