RAILWAY RIVALRY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1361, 12 February 1912, Page 6

RAILWAY RIVALRY.

SOME BELLICOSE SOUTHERNERS. The' rivalry between the North Island and the South, particularly in the matter of railway construction, was forcibly touched on by several speakers at tho luncheon tendered to the Otago Central touring party at Lawrence on Friday, according to the "Otago Daily Times." Mr. ill. Cohen introduced the subject, by expressing his regret that there was a class of men—some of them in journalism—so lost to a sense of what was proper and due to Otago that they played down to this sentiment that the huh of the universe was centred in the North Island. The men in the North Island ought not to forget that in time' of trouble and tribulation it was the men of Otago who stood by them and helped them. It was the brains of Otago that brought them through their .difficulties. Mr. Arnold slid later that there was great need for the Otago members to stand shoulder to shoulder and see that Otago got its fair share of the jmblic expenditure. "We had been too weak, too patriotic, and had been prepared to say, in responso to northern demands, 'Very well. Our lines can go a little slower whilo some of tho lines in the North Island are forced on.' That was exactly the position in tho future. If we give way for a moment " said Mr. Arnold, "you will discover that the North Island representatives will not give way, and their linos will bo forced on while ours stand still," Mr. Burnett pointed out that it was due to Otago that New Zealand was able to come out successfully froiu the bad position she was in at the time of the Maori war. Now Otago was considered a back number, but he said plainly they were not going to be a back number. Speaking as a commercial man of considerable experience, Mr. P. R. Sargood said that Otago had supplied the men and the brains and the money for (he whole commercial enterprise of the North Island.