When the present Superintendent's predecessor came into office there came down a new Superintendent's Salary Act, providing a salary of £1,500, instead of £800, for the Superintendent. In Colonel Wynyard's time the sum was voted for the office and not for the man. The second Act was for a salary for the man for the time being (Mr. Whit aker), and not for the office. The motion of the hon. member for City West was an attack upon the man who held the office of - Superintendent at the present time. (Cries of "No, no.") The Council had voted £1,500 for Mr. Whituker, and they now asked the present Superintendent to take a salary of £600. Was the province three times better <ff when the last Act was passed than it was now ? The hon. mover had voted for the payment of the £1,500, and he now asked the Executive to assent to a motion to reduce that amount to one-third. Thfe Executive would not be a party to any such trans* action. The hon. member disclaimed any personal feeling towards the Superintendent in bringing forward such a motion. He was bound to believe the hon. member in a Parliamentary sense. (Crier of u Oh, oh !") If the Executive were willing tobe the servants of the Council, yet on that question they would not be their slaves. Ther honourable member for the Bay of Islands had fallen into an error when he thought the salary wm always too much, and that it had been voted to Colonel Wynyard as he was a personal favourite. There was opposition to Colonel Wyn yard at that time, and the hon. member for City West was one of the opponents. There was no Executive at that time, and hon. members threw i their shafts at the Superintendent direct. It was not an easy life to be a Superintendent ; he had to undergo a great deal of mental and bodily fatigue. The Superintendent was not overpaid, and he did not think any officials had been overpaid, but rather underpaid, for the simple reason that thoß© men were precluded from entering into any other kind of business whatever. He had expected better things from the hon. member for Onehunga than to second the motion. 