NORTH V. SOUTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13480, 3 July 1907, Page 7

NORTH V. SOUTH.

PUBLIC WORKS VOTE.

REFERENCES IN PARLIAMENT.

[by TELEGRAPH.SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington, Tuesday. The question of the relative amounts expended on public works in the two islands was referred to by Mr. Davey in his .speech in tho House of Representatives to-night. He said he wished to appeal to the Auckland members to tell him why their newspapers', and especially the New Zealand Herald, were always railing against the South Island. They were always being Cold that the South Island was getting the greatest snare of public works expenditure, and that the money from the North Island whs going to feed the South Island. He criticised some remarks made by Mr. Finlayson in his recent speech on the needs of the Nortn, and said it was time that the people of Auckland and their leader writers should learn to tell the truth. (Voices: •Oh! Oh!")

Mr. Davey went on to say that the statements made were altogether incorrect. The South Island had not received nearly so i much money as the New Zealand Herald would have them believe. He! quoted the following us the amounts expended in the various provincial districts during the past four years:—Auckland, £1,321.266; Taratiaki. £314,658; Hawke's Bay. £223.177; Wellington, £1.266,359; Marlborough, £70.710; Nelson. £428,594; Westland, £274,440; Canterbury. £692,655; Otago and Southland. .£1,089,141. This table, he said, showed that the total sum received by the North Island during the past four years was £3,125,460. as against £2,555,540 received by the South Island, or a difference in favour of the North Island of over £125,000 a year ;' yet the Auckland newspapers and some of the Auckland members were grumbling all the time about the " poor North." Mr. Mander: You did not go back far enough. Mr. Davey: If you gc back farther you will get the same result., MV. Poland, in his speech, said that he regretted that Mr. Davey should have seen fit to go so far out of his way as to make an attack on the North.

The -figures for Auckland and Wellington appear large, but it should be remembered that the votes for the Main Trunk railway, admittedly a national undertaking, are responsible for a great portion of these two totals. Mr. Davey seems to have overlooked this fact.