THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1909. THE RAILWAY PROPOSALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14250, 22 December 1909, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1909. THE RAILWAY PROPOSALS.

No apology is required for returning to the question of the treatment meted out to the North Island in the railway, construction votes proposed by the Government, particularly as the corrected comparison, freed from accidental error in transmission and compilation, displays a literally outrageous indifferenco to the claims of the North. The actual figures are:— NORTH ISLAND. £ Kawakawa ...' ... ... ... 40,000 Kaikohe ... ... . 2,500 North Auckland ' ... 80,000 East Coast ... ... 80,000 Stratford ... • ... 60,000 Mt. Egmont ... , 5,000 Main Trunk ... ... • 20,000 SOUTH ISLAND. £ Blenheim-Waipara ... ... 45,000 Midland .. ... I^o,ooo "Westport-Inaugahua ... ... 20,000 Ngaherc-Blnokball 30,000 Greymouth-Pt. Elizabeth ... 50,000 Hokitika-Ross ... ... ... 4,000 Lawrence-Roxburgh ... ... 12,500 (ioro-Waikaka ... ... ... 3,000 Catlins-Waimahaka ... ••• 80,000 Riversdale-Switzcrs 20,000 Orepuki-Waiau ••• 15,000

Proposed expenditure in South ... £449,500 Proposed expenditure in North ... £287,500 South Island excess £162,000 Before the elections of last year Sir Joseph Ward admitted that the North Island had grounds for complaint, but asserted that we might rely upon full consideration in the future. During the; electoral campaign Mr. Eowlds, as an Auckland member of the Administration, made most emphatic claims as to the fairness of the treatment of "the North in ■railway matters. As both Sir Joseph .Ward and Mr. Fowlds have agreed to these outrageous proposals, we must assume that they-.both regard this sort of treatment" as what the i North Island ' deserves... But if our North Island members are satisfied j to accept this division of railway construction expenditure, they should be replaced as quickly as possible by more sturdy and -patriotic representatives. For from every point of view the North Island ,is clearly entitled to more railway construction money than the South"; seeing that the North Island has not only the larger population, the larger Parliamentary representation,. . .the greater production, the - greater trade, more stock and more'farm holdings, but its growth is incomparably faster, its prospects, are incomparably more promising, its contributions to the general revenue are larger and increasingly, larger, and its railway earnings per mile are far higher, while its railway mileage is astoundingly less. No terms • could be too strongly condemnatory for the policy of an Administration which in the face of all this deliberately proposes to spend, during the current year, £162,000 - more upon South Island lines than upon North

Island. Nor can any reprobation be too emphatic for any. North Island member who assents, either as a Minister or as a Representative, to this iniquitous abuse of administrative authority. ?■'

There is really an excess of more than £162,000 in favour of the South Island, for the duplications are an inseparable and, integral part of Public Works expenditure, as Auckland .finds when it feebly endeavours to secure the duplication of the Parnell Tunnel. Adding duplication expenditures' proposed during the current year, we have the following comparison:— £ North Island railways, as above ... 287,500 North Island duplications ... ... 79,602 Total proposed expenditure £367,102 South Island railways, as above ... 449,500 South Island duplications 101,000 Total proposed expenditure ... ...£550,500 Real South Island excess ... £183,398 Nor is this the final total of our North Island wrongs. The notorious partiality of ' the Administration leads to proportionately greater expenditure of the votes in the South Island than in the North, and it is quite probable that the year will close with an expenditure balance of fully £200,000 in favour of South Island railway construction ,as against North Island.

Our North Island members, from some inscrutable reason, appear either to be lamentably ignorant of the superior claims of this island, or to bo abjectly incapable of standing up for our rights against that organised South Island phalanx which at. the division of what it evidently regards as the spoils knows neither party nor Dominion, but unites to raid .the Public Works Fund on behalf of local railways for an island whose unprofitable railways are already a burden upon the exchequer. To enlighten their ignorance, as well as to exhibit to our readers the piratical conduct of an Administration which denounces " sectionalism" with hypocritical constancy, as a cloak to its unwaveringly " sectional" allocation of railway expenditure, we will quote a few official figures which bear on this most vital i question:— • ■ North • South Island. Island. Population (Jan. 1, 1909) 517,870 442,567 Total exports (1908) ... £11.037,455 : £7,234,156 Sheep (1908)... ... ~.. 11,632.201 10,816.852 Cattle (1908)... ... ... 1,394,744 378,582 Here we have unassailable figures which demonstrate the remarkable manner in which the North Island/ in spite of Departmental antagonism, in spite of the locking-up of the .Native Lands, and in spite of the amazing neglect of the Administration to provide developmental railways, has outpaced and surpassed the long-dominant South Island. And what is the actual working position of - the ' existing; railways in 5 a •Dominion whose Government to-day proposed to" spend £162;0p6 more; on ' proposed to spend £162,000 more on Southern than .on Northern linesapart from the duplications 2 - This is the existing situation —» -j. i

North. South. ! Railway mileage "... ... 1,135 1,571 Month's earnings (Nov.-13) ... £37,450 £28,771 Last 227 days' earnings per mile ... ... ' ... . ... £204,18 f £176,14 The truth is that the,. South is so over-railwayed in proportion to its population and trade that they are averagely unprofitable, yet a number of the railways now under construction are " political lines," and can only add to the burden carried by the North. We can get nothing— tunnel, no improved services, no developmental lines, although in the back blocks of our North Island provinces millions of fertile acres wait for the husbandman. And while our lands lie locked up and idle, or while pioneering settlers are hampered and production stifled for lack of railways, Northern apologists for the Government actually echo the Southern pretence . of the need of railways to develop Southern districts. It is time to stop this Southern plundering of the common purse to which the North Island contributes the greater and an increasingly greater share. And that our North Island members can stop this plundering whenever they awaken to their 1 responsibilities is shown by this official table :— - • . North . South . Island. Island. Representatives in Parliament ... 41 35 . ,

If our North Island majority permits such iniquitous maladministration to continue, the North Island electors should remember, on election day, this betrayal of public. trust.