The Evening Star SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1927. THE SOUTH BETRAYED.

Evening Star, Issue 19724, 26 November 1927, Page 6

The Evening Star SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1927. THE SOUTH BETRAYED.

The one good thing that the Government lias done in connection with the petrol tax is,to cause a big revival of interest in politics in the South Island. There is nothing like a common grievance to bind varying sections of the community and to turn apathy into energy. In its wisdom the Government has* provided that grievance, and it is one that is actutely felt, not by a few, but by everyone. Last night arrangements wore put in train for a deputation of protest representative of the whole of the South Island to go to Wellington before the session ends. The interests for whom that deputation will do battle comprise motorists, city councils, borough councils, county councils, and chambers of commerce. A Government which imagines that it can antagonise such a combination with Impunity must surely possess as little gumption as was suggested by the rambling and totally irrelevant Ministerial answers which have been made to earlier protest, and which were really the occasion of last night’s indignation meeting. The object of those telegrams was apparently to sidetrack those following a hot trail at a pace evidently disconcerting to a fugitive and elusive Government. But the rod-herring deceived no one. “Piffle” was the contemptuous epithet with which one speaker dismissed the contents of the latest communication from the capital after reading it to the meeting, and the unanimity with which those present confirmed this verdict was really remarkable when one reflects that two years ago many of them worked hard to return to Parliament the owner of the signature to the missive*

We 'do not propose to go into the details of the matter which ■ has brought about this hostility to the Government and the pained surprise that South Island Ministers in it have ranged themselves on the northern side of Cook Strait. “We want fair play,” was the exclamation of one speaker, uttered in a tone of sincerity and determination which spoke volumes. The attitude which tho Government takes up is that there has been no breach of fair play, although South Island money, definitely ear-marked by law for South Island roads, has been spent on North Island roads; and that there will bo no further breach of fair play in raising more money for an even more glaring, inequality of distribution in tho future. The Government’s idea of fair play is exemplified in tho constitution of the Main Highways Board, which comprises nine North Island representatives to one South Island, whereas on the basis of motor vehicle density there should be six North Island and four South Island members. And the expenditure on roads has only too closely followed this tell-tale misrepresentation of southern as against northern interests on the board. Practically all that tho Government lias said (germane to the question) in answer to tho formidable facts and figure,s contained in the southern protests is that the South Island may have one more member on the Highways Board, and the South Island should trust the Minister of Public Works. One more member on the Highways Board would still leave the South Island lar short of its proper representation, and with not a whit better prospect of bare justice. And what possible grounds are there for reposing trust in a Minister who permitted the huge transfer of highways money from revenue fund to construction fund, says he will please himself when it is re-transferred, if nt all, and now reserves to himself the right to perpetuate a system which amounts to robbery of the South Island by the North? The only way to deal with such a Government is to remove it. As Mr Steel, secretary of the Otago Expansion League said last night—in a fighting speech which better than anything else construed the temper of the largo and very representative gathering—tho behaviour of the Government in this matter is the beginning of a big row that will only end at the ballot box next year.