THE NEGLECTED NORTH.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 91, 10 January 1908, Page 4

THE NEGLECTED NORTH.

ANOTHER WAIL FROM AUCKLAND

(UT TELEGRArH—SPEOUL CORRESPONDENT.) ''

Auckland, January 9. Commenting editorially upon the Premier's lefcicnco to the Dominion's finance, the "Herald" says: Sir Joseph Ward has announced that the increase of our national .revenue' for 1907, as against 190G, was £633,000. Ho says very correctly that this liicreaso is exceedingly "satisfactory, and bo hopes thjifc when the financial year closcs on .March 31, it will show another record. But he dul not tell his audience in Invercnrgill how;tho buoyancy of our revenue is maintained. It certainly does not conic from any marked expansion in that part of New Zealand. The source of this continuous increase the cause of the uninterrupted buoyancy of our financial position—is to be seen in the "neglected north." A visitor from the south, who, although long a member of our 1 arimmcnt, has never before been in this great province—ivo refer to Mr. Barclay, M.l'., of Dunedin—frankly expresses his wonder at its prosperity, and admits that •' southern people have a lot to learn about Auckland.-' But what has first of all to bo learned is that tho true Auckland is unseen by visitors, because wo lack the network of railways, and the -web of splendid roads which display tho South Island to all-comers, and so greatly assisted in its development. liv Auckland there is comparatively little railway, and a woeful want of good roads, .but our back country settlers overcome, many difficulties, ami are stcadilv making progress. It is tho work dono in Auckland province, largely by settlers from the south, who aro as much Aucklauders now as they wcro once Otagoaus or Westlanders, which is making the northern metropolis grow at a rate which Dunedin can only admire or envy, and which is swelling tho national revenue 'to tho joy of the Premier in Invercargill. And how aro our settlers treated in return? They are asked to make bricks without straw; to settle without roads or railwavs.