Editor Bill Zuill yesterday acknowledged that he erred in an editorial on Saturday when he stated that Premier Alex Scott had proposed that full- and part-time Ministers should all receive full-time salaries.

?is always happy to correct errors, and in this case I erred,? Mr. Zuill said. ?The mistake was inadvertent and has unfortunately given Mr. Scott the impression that I was objecting to something he never suggested.?

The editorial came after an independent committee published its report on legislators? salaries and proposed that Cabinet Ministers be paid $100,000 per year if they were part-time and $150,000 if they were full-time.

But the committee, which noted that there was no legal guidance for determining what would constitute a full-time Minister and what would constitute a part-time Minister, said that decision would be up to the Premier who should make a determination based on a Ministry?s size, budget and workload.

It disagreed with a proposal by Mr. Scott in May, 2005 that ?any Minister whose work outside of Government was deemed important enough that they cannot become a full-time Minister would be paid on a scale according to the amount of time they give?.

It was the Premier?s May proposal that the editorial said was ?nonsense?, Mr. Zuill said.

?I am sorry if my wholly inadvertent mistake has muddied the waters, and since Mr. Scott has asked for a correction, I hope this will suffice.?