REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE ESTIMATES FOR THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Notwithstanding the pressure of business, your Committee have met four times nd have very fully considered the matter referred to them. According to their conclusions the Estimate will stand as follows :—. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. £ s. d. Clerk 200 0 0 Messenger, at 6s. per diem, when employed 75 0 0 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. £ s. d. Clerk.. .. .. .. ~ 250 0 0 Assistant ditto ... .. .. 200 0 0 Chairman of Committees ... .. 100 0 0 Sergeant-at-Arms .. . .. ]50 0 0 Messengers, at 6s per diem whilst employed .. .. .. 75 0 0 Expenses of Members Passages of Members of both Houses 550 0 0 Printing, Stationery, and Contingencies .. .. .. 1000 0 0 Building and Furniture .. .. 3100 0 0 Your Committee regret that the more important of their decisions were not unanimous. Certain Resolutions which were agreed to, some unanimously, some only by a majority, will best explain the views of the Committee, who therefore present the same to the House as part of their Report. At their first Meeting, the Committee, six in number being present, agreed ncrn. con to the following Resolution " That considering the desirable character of the office of Speaker, in either House qf the Legislature, as a highly honorable distinction, and the inadequacy of the salaries of most of the inferior but laborious officers of the General Government for which it behoves the House to afford a remedy by all available raenns, the Committee are of opinion that, on the present occasion, it is ex • pedient that no salary should be voted for either Speaker, but that both should be on the same footing as other Members with regard to their expenses." At a subsequent meeting, the following Resolution on the same subject was proposed and rejected :— " That the salary of Speaker of the House of Representatives be filled up at £'400 per annum ; that the salary of Speaker of the Legislative Council be filled up at the like sum, but so long as the office is filled by the Attorney-General the aggregate salary of the two offices do not exceed £800." With regard to the expenses of Members of both Houses, the following Resolutions, as passed, with the amendments rejected, show the mind of the Committee on the principal branches of the subject:— " That it is inexpedient to fill up the blank left for the expenses of the Members of the Legislative Council, because the distinction of performing their duties at their own expense is one which rightly belongs to the Members of a Legislative body not elected by the people for their service, but intended to occupy a position and to perform functions in the Legislature which require that its members should be independent both of Executive influenee anh of pecuniary obligation to the people, a double independence, whereof an essential condition is that the_"persons in question should have sufficient private property to render the pay-