SCHEME REVIVED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 297, 28 September 1935, Page 7

SCHEME REVIVED

SOUTH ISLAND PARLIAMENT.

AN INVERQARGILL SUGGESTION.

(Per Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, Sept. 27. The establishment of a parliament for the South Island was suggested in a letter from Mr W. Hinchey (chairman of the Southland Electric Power Board), at a meeting of the Southland provincial executive ot the Farmers’ Union to-day. It was decided to place the matter on the agenda paper for the next meeting. “There is no disguising that we have for some years been losing ground to the north,” said Mr Hinchey. “We have lost our regular and natural shipping connection with Australia, and trade has been drawn to the northern ports. The Union Steam Ship Company removed its headquarters from Dunedin, the place of its birth, to Wellington. This was a very serious loss to Otago and Southland. We are threatened with the centralising of shipping in Wellington, and should this occur it would spell destruction to the ports of Bluff and Otago, and largely affect the port of Lyttelton. “Tourist traffic to Rotorua has contributed extensively to the growth and prosperity of Auckland, and notwithstanding that this island has much to attract tourists, we have not had a fair share of the revenue derived from that source.” Two parliaments, Mr Hinchey said, would give members more time for details, and would largely avoid the necessity for commissions. The tendency seemed to be in the direction of smaller parliamentary territories. “Points to be considered would be: (1) Would a parliament situated at Christchurch or Dunedin help towards greater prosperity in this island; (2) would it be more costly than one parliament; (3) are we getting an equitable share of public money—the highway fund, the unemployment fund, and expenditure through the Public Works Department; (4) having regard to the large expenditure of public money in the North Island in recent years, do we in this island pay more than our share of taxation to meet interest payments on that money; (5) can members ot Parliament for the North Island, who have never seen the south, be expected to bo perfectly unbiased in discussing inter-island questions?”

It wa9 noticeable, said Mr Hinchey, tliat the northern press frequently attacked proposals for development works in the south, with the object of influencing the > Government, which was entirely to the detriment of this island. “I feel sometimes,” he concluded, “that this island is like a mandated territory, with the Government on the other side of the water.”