A SOUTHERN GRIEVANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18457, 21 July 1923, Page 8

A SOUTHERN GRIEVANCE.

For many years the South Island has complained against the imposition of. additional charges for the . carriage to Southern ports of cargo delivered at Auckland or Wellington by the Pacific mail steamers. They protest that since the whole country contributes to the subsidies paid for the Pacific service, every part of it should be able to obtain consignments of goods by the steamers at a flat rate. . Their case was expounded again yesterday with portentous gravity, and except for occasional hints of sarcasm, the Postmaster-General received their representations with the most courteous solemnity. But when such manifest inaccuracies as one of Mr. Sidey's statements are set aside, and the matter is considered without sentiment or prejudice, only a bogey remains. In the first place, the subsidy is not paid for a cargo service, but for the carriage of mails. ' Secondly, the South Island, as well as other ports of the North Island, has the advantage of a cargo service ' by five steamers, which deliver conI signments direct to all of them at the same rate of freight as that charged by the mail steamers to Auckland or Wellington. In fact, the South Island has been, spoiled with subsidies, and as a natural result has become petulant. It has "flat rates" on its railways, and the North Island makes up . its losses j it has a flat rate in. sugar prices, amd the North Island has to p>ay the cost of delivering supplies to the South Island. But if a sugges- . tion is made of a flat rate for elec- ; tricity, it becomes indignant; it sees I nothing unjust in the North Island •having to pay coastal freights on ' wheat, flour, potatoes and . other ! commodities for which it provides a highly profitable market. Until the South Island can discover a way to remodel the geography of New Zealand the proposal of flat rates by mail steamers must be set asido as : ; «npra(jticabh*» iV '.- V. ■. -. : j