THE ‘STAR’ OF THE NORTH.

Evening Star, Issue 14572, 22 May 1911, Page 2

THE ‘STAR’ OF THE NORTH.

SPARKLES WITH INDIGNATION. [Spicial to tbb Siae.] AUCKLAND, May 20. The Auckland ‘Star’ this evening returns to the attack on the question of representation, and deals it forth timely: A few days since we drew attention to the extraordinary suggestion put forward by the Dunedin ‘Evening Star’ to prevent the North Island from gaining any political advantage from its growing preponderance in population over the South. The idea that the South Island should enjoy all the benefits of the existing system until it fell behind the North Island, and that then the electoral law should be altered ■o as to retain permanently for the South (he advantages it has already secured, is one of the most ridiculous and preposterous proposals that partisan prejudice ever devised. The effrontery of the ‘Evening Star’ seems to have abashed even Mr James Allen, who, though so ardent an advocate of Southern rights, was compelled to admit in an interview that we published last week that “ he failed to see how the South Island was to avoid losing at least three seats before next _ election, since the law as it exists provides that there should be a preponderance in the Legislature according to population.” But though Mr Allen, as a public man of experience, cannot countenance the crude and extravagant view of the ‘ Evening Star,’ he is just as anxious to prevent the irrevocable transfer of political authority from the South to the North, and he therefore suggests a way out of the difficulty. The loss of members means the enlargement of constituencies, and with commendable dexterity Mr Allen hints that if this goes on the Southern electorates will become too large to manage. Why not fix a limit below which the number of Southern representatives shall not fall so as to prevent the undue growth of these electorates -in any area, while the increase in population of the North Island might receive its full quota of members? It needs very little perspicacity to observe that this is only another way of preventing the North Island from getting the full electoral benefit of its constant and steady development, while the South is to be protected from the consequences of its relative decline at the same time. If Mr Allen’s scheme were adopted, the enlargement of the total membership of Parliament would increase seriously and unnecessarily the public expenditure on members’ salaries. So our brief analysis of this ingenious special pleading leads to the same conclusion as before: that this is only another device for obstructing and deferring as long as possible the transference of political preponderance from the South to the North. In different ways, the Christchurch ‘ Press,’ the Dunedin ‘ Evening Star,’ and the member for Bruce all mean the same thing, and are striving for the one purpose. The gross and palpable injustice concealed beneath their specious and plausible arguments is a fair indication of the standard of “ fair play ” usually adopted by the South in its dealings with the North.