THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1906. NORTH AND SOUTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13234, 20 July 1906, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1906. NORTH AND SOUTH.

The census returns just issued by the Registrar-General show that the North Island continues to increase the rate at which it has gained upon and overtaken, . and now draws steadily ahead of, the population of the South Island. What has taken place during ..the past twenty ... years may'be seen by a comparison' of the respective populations at the beginning and the end of that period. The official population figures are :

1886. ' 1906..' North Island ... 250,482 476,891. ' South Island ... 327,592 411,258

The North Island now exceeds the South Island in population by over 65,000, and since it still contains the bulk of the unoccupied lands of the colony may confidently be expected to increase its lead for a great many years to come. It is practically certain that when New Zealand contains a million European colonists the North Island majority will be considerably more than 100,000, and that in the not far distant future the population-race will not be between the two islands, as it lias been in the past, but. between the South Island and the Province of Auckland alone. For though the South Island is doing very well, and during the past five years has increased at the rate of 7.75 per cent, as. compared to an average increase rate of 5.2 for each of the three previous lustrums, it cannot compete for population against the attractions of the North. The smallest increase of the North Island during the twenty-year period was in 1886-91, and then it was 12.36 per cent. ; while in 1901-6 its increase was 22.10 per cent., or nearly treble that of the South. These are facts which ought to be borne in mind when the claims of the North Island are being considered. The lesson to be drawn from them ought to influence both Government and 11 Parliament towards dealing with us more justly than they have done in the past. For the North Island has ceased to be the inferior partner in the colonial partnership. It contains considerably more than half the population, contributes considerably more than half the revenue, and cannot any longer be kept in a state of political and administrative subordination.

We have no wish whatever to encourage any sectional jealousies or to urge the North Island to make use of its growing political strength to the injury or disadvantage of the South. We wish to forget that there has ever been any ill-feeling, and to remember only that we are all New Zealanders, and that the common good of our common country is above all things to be sought after and worked for. But it will be impossible to do this unless the South. Island realises the position and admits frankly that the North has equal claims to the South in the apportionment of public expenditures and in the governance of the colony. Only two-fifths of the railway mileage of the colony is in the North Island by far the best roading of the colony is in the South Island ; the expenditure on public buildings in the South Island provinces lias been greatly in excess of that of the North Island provinces. We do not suggest for one moment that the South should be neglected while the North . is being brought, up to its level. We readily agree that there ■are railways in the South which ought to be proceeded with, roads which ought to -be .laid out or .improved, public buildings which ought

to be constructed. But we ' claim that not only are the needs of thft North Island generally much greater than the needs of the South Island, because of past neglect, hut that the results of public expenditure in the North ; Island will / be generally greater than in the South, because this island has by far the better prospects of industrial and population expansion, as is proved by the census returns. What we ask of the South Island is that it will meet us fairly and frankly, that it will not support worthless railway proposals merely because they are in the (South, or oppose worthy railway proposals merely because they' are.-in the North; in a word, that it will join us in pushing the colony along and will, not perpetuate the policy of penalising the North in order to secure undue advantage for the South. There is much good work to be done for the development of the South Island with which even Aucklanders would be in hearty sympathy had they not been estranged by the assumption that no Northern claim ; is meritorious enough to receive from the South that generous consideration to which it is manifestly entitled. V

If the South Island would meet the North in a friendly spirit and would, in discussing public works expenditures, remember how much the South has secured and how great and pressing are the needs of many Northern districts, we should probably have little further complaint to make of the locking-tip of the Native Lands and of the Crown Lands which are unapproachable until Native Lands are opened up. For the great impediment to the solution of the Native Land question has been the lack of sympathy in the South Island with the attempt of the North Island to put idle land to use under conditions that will ensure' justice to the native owners without exacting impossible conditions from European settlers. If the South would widen its geographical outlook, would 'recognise that settlement north of Cook Strait is as beneficial to the colony and to every man in the colony as settlement south 'of Cook Strait, would cease to be sectional excepting in that emulous spirit in which the most patriotic will always be sectional, there would be no difficulty in getting the Native Lands opened up under just and equitable conditions. Fair opportunity for Northern settlement, both by the opening of all idle blocks and by the making of reasonable rail and. road facilities for our Northern settlers, is all that is claimed by the North Island in this connection. And we would urge upon the people of the South Island that since this is all to the advantage of the entire colony, as it will increase its population and its revenue and thus lighten the heavy burden of the public ' debt, there should be no political differences or sectional antagonisms in the matter. There will always be political divisions among politically /ree peoples, and it is well that there , should be, but we ought not to be divided either upon questions of foreign policy which involve the national safety or upon questions of domestic policy which clearly involve the "national progress and expansion.