Developmental Expenditure.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17451, 11 May 1922, Page 6

Developmental Expenditure.

When the Auckland "Herald" discusses the allocation of public works expenditure it is apt to express views with which' people south 'of the kauri line cannot easily agree. But on Monday last, in an article dealing with, some remarks mnde at the dinner of the "Wellington CJhamljer of Commerce last week, it put forward some views which we are glad to support. A speaker at the dinner quoted figures to show that during the past four years the expenditures on railways in the Auckland province wag 50 times as great per head of population as the expenditure on railways in the Wellington province. On roads the expenditure in Auckland per head of population was twice as great as in. the rest of the North .Island. Tfiis may he true, and the proportions may yet be reasonable. We ourselves have often had to protest against the complaints cf Auckland's spokesmen oon.oerning what they declared .was the shabby treatment of Auckland so far as the expenditure of public money is concerned. These complaints have been baseless to the point of absurdity, as we have sometimes (had to show. Bub we Jrave never believed that there ia anv soundness in sucii methods of argument as were used by the speaker {it the Wellington gathering. The country has suffered a- heavy enough, lbsa during the past t'birty years through the invocation of the principle that every province or district should receive ' its fair share" of the public expenditure—the "fair share'' being some share not (it all based upon or really related to the requirements of the country as a whole. It is easy, therefore, to agree with the "Herald' when it says that the claim that ' 'each '' province w entitled to its dole," whilo possibly excusable in members of Parliament who belong to the old ' roads-and-bridgeß'' school, is unpardonable when put forward iii the name ■ "\ . - v V■.

of commerce. The "Herald" is almost completely converted to the view which has been urged in "The Press" for many ye*irs, and we hops that it will remember it is converted when it comes to discuss hydro-electric problems, and that it will recognise that the national good requires that tho efficiency of Canterbury's contribution to the national wealth will not be hampered by unnecessarily high charges for current.