MAIN HIGHWAYS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18896, 23 June 1923, Page 8

MAIN HIGHWAYS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—l desire to express the thanks of my league for your courteous and effective reply to the taunt of your Wellington contemporary that the South Island demand for a separate Highway Board is “parochial.’’ The contention of the South Island people is fundamentally the claim of democracy all tho world over. The taxation without representation—and as the figures show a preponderance of motor vehicle owners in tho south their claim is only bare justice. Tho northern statement that this is a national work would be correct if the roads had been constructed solely by the national Government in both islands. But, as we are only too well aware, the people of the south have spent far more on roads than our northern advisors, and we refuse to see it our duty to wait now while their supinoness and lack of self-help is made up at our expense. If Cook Strait had been non-existent the claim for one board might bo accepted, but as all road-making ends with the shore each island must of necessity be independent. Tho threat that if we make any more noise we may bo saddled with the care and cost of our own railways does not daunt Us. We have consistently advocated South Island management for them also, convinced that we could not manage them worse than they are at present even if we tried. But courtesy and logic are not the weapons with which to fight this battle. You might as well use a razor to chop firewood. There is only one reason to which the Minister will listen, and that is tho voice of votes.

Let every organiastion that stands for South Island progress and betterment be Oanded into one on this question, and let each bring pressure to bear on its local member of Parliament to demand a separate board. We would be content with a board of three members for the South Island. The shadow of a general election is over the land, and neither the Government nor the Opposition can afford to flout the great body of the electors; and the transfer of the votes of indignant motorists, and other road users, would bo sufficient to break a Government. Organisation, agitation, and perseverance are the three necessities of the moment. If the people of Otago and the South Island are willing to sit down under these impositions, then they must be prepared to be treated oven more scurvily in the future. The remedy is in their own hands. My league has pressed consistently for these concessions ever since the Main Highways Bill was mooted, and is prepared to go on; and if its action and that of the Motor Association are upheld by the people, then what we demand we shall have. But—and it is a very important but —don’t leave it to the other fellow. Let every active citizen help.—l am, etc., W. B. Steel, Secretary Otago Expansion League. Dunedin, June 22.

Sir, —Ytmr leading article this morning on the Main Highways Board is very much to the point, and should servo to awaken ratepayers and road users to a sense of the danger of allowing the control of South Island roads to pass to a board composed solely of North Island members. You published this morning a letter from Invercargill signed “Progress,” which very ably puts the position. It is certainly not an economical idea, to have one board to travel the whole country when smaller boards in each island could exorcise more efficient control and give better attention to the work at much less cost. The figures given by “Progress” support this view, and it is one to which ratepayers as well as road users would do well to give serious thought. It is to be hoped that ratepayers, motorists, and other users of our South Island roads will back up our Chamber of Commerce, county councils, and Otago Motor Club in their efforts to get the Government to reconsider the Highways Act and appoint two boards for this work. The roads should bo handled from a national standpoint and not from the parochial point which the appointment of one board comprised solely of North Island members seems to indicate. The North Island point of view is clearly shown by the recently published report of the Hon. Ueorge Fowlds’s remarks on the subject of Government grunts to the Medical and Dental Schools.

The assistance of our Otago members of Parliament should bo asked at once in order to endeavour to have righted what can only bo termed a huge wrong to the South Island.—l am, etc., South Island. Dunedin, June 22.