Canterbury's Critics.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 15469, 12 March 1919, Page 6

Canterbury's Critics.

Nobody in Canterbury has supposed that the efforts which, are being made to compel attention to tho interests, of this province -would meet with any sympathy in otlher parts of the country. Nobody ■will be surprised, therefore, to learn that Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin are beginning to grow restivo over tho local agitation for tho early completion of the Otira tunnel. It hasi been, we must confess, hard work keeping the local organisations active, but it has been work that we have "felt obliged to do, and. it is somo reward to know that our friends in the other centres are beginning to take the Canterbury agitation seriously. The "Otago Daily Times," for example, actually brackets Canterbury with Auckland, without admiring either of them. "Tho " criiticism which is being directod " against the Minister of Public Works "because he is possessed of no magi- " ciun's wand that would enable him "to produce a supply of labour suffi- " ciont for all his requirements out of '' a marke£ that has little or no surplus " to offer, has emanated mainly from "two provincial districts." One of these, of course, is Auckland, and the othisr is Canterbury, and concerning Canterbury the Dunedin paper declares thai; "the Midland line has actually re- " coived preferential treatment at tho " hands of the Government" —the preferential treatment consisting, as we understand it, of the piercing of the tunnel, a result which our contemporary apparently thinks ought to satisfy tho people of tbis province, even if no tiling further is done. The Auckland comment upon the recent activity here takes th© form of a protest against a statement, made by a Christchurch delegate to the Congregational Union, that the people of Auckland seem to get what they want. One of the Auckland papers protests that Auckland does not get what it wants "or oven what it) " deserves." Moreover, what Auckland has managed to get has not been obtained by agitation: "nature and cir- " cumstances have had more to do with "our advancement than leagues" —a statement in which one detects that subtle flavour of Prussianism which we have remarked before in Auckland's propaganda. And so thp Auckland paper, protesting that it is a complete mistake to suppose that Auckland has ever spoken above a whisper about) Auckland's needs, urges the formation of a league like tho Progress League! In Wellington the spirit of obstruction appears very plainly in some comments by the ''Dominion" upon the suggestion that if ho were to set about it as energetically as a private constructor would do, the Minister of Public Works would speedily enough overcome th© labour difficulty and complete th© tunnel. The "Dominion" grudgingly admits that common-sense calls for tho completion of the work, although it will not admit that th© railway will pay its way "for " a long time to come," but it declares that "there are public works of even "greater concern to the country which " call urgently for attention," and it concludes with the following irritable remarks: "Somo members of tho Canter- " bury deputation urged that sufficient " labour would be available for the " speedy completion of tho Otira tun-

" nel if the Government «;ould only " pay high enough wages. No doubt. " Money is no object with irresponsibles "who put forward this kind of sugges- " tion. Hang the post—oo long as it is "the other fellow who pays." Tho peoplo of this province would much rather hare the friendship and goodwill of the other provinces than their hostility, but tlicy cannot afford to gain and keep friendship and goodwill by accepting without protest a policy that is injurious to provincial and national interests. The Tunnel League and the Progress League need not be dismayed by the unfriendliness of the Press of tho other centres, which arc perhaps as much startled as annoyed to find that Canterbury is waking up to a sense of what is due to it.