A NEW AUSTRALIAN STATE.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 February 1931, Page 4

A NEW AUSTRALIAN STATE.

The movements for an alteration in the division of Australia into States make themselves- felt from time to tiind; but M far they have never been regarded as very serious. They have coincided, as a rule, with some peculiar difficulty or some political controversy, in Which certain portions of a State have considered they were receiving unfair treatment. A recent suggestion was that Queensland and Western Australia should hand ovdr to the Commonwealth the tropical areas in each State and from these, with the Northeim Territory that is already under Federal control, additional “Territories’' were to be set up that would ultimately acquire the status of States. By this means it was hoped, to counteract disabilities of •climate and conditions which apply to ■the Northern Territory and the portions of Queensland and Western Australia within the tropics. But the •States concerned were unwilling to surrender any of their territory and the proposal fell to the .ground. The latest ■suggestion is one from northern New ■South Wales, which has been called the "Taranaki” of that State. It contains ■some of the most fertile lands in New ■South Wales and has a better rainfall than many other Jt the largest centre of the State dairy industry arid close settlement is extending all the time. On more tjian ohe occasion settlers there have complained at what they considered the subordination of the farmers’ interests to those •of the city voters, and there have been ■previous suggestions of the formation of a new State. The latest advocate is Dr. Earl Page, leader of the Country 'Party in th* Federal Parliament and -a prominent member of the Nationalist Ministry which fell at the Ust election. His afivocacy rests upon the determination of northern New South Wa-l&s to be nd party to the repudiation of State debts proposed by the preSeftt ■premier, Mr. J. T. lAng. As a protest . against such eeUtieal

gesture is important, but whether there is any likelihood of a new State being, ■formed is quite another matter. It will! need much more than righteous indignation, however justified, to bring such a proposal within the sphere of practical politics. Particularly is that so at present. Australia already suffers from fl, surfeit of Parliament and State governing bodies. Now that hard times suust be lived through the movement is towards reducing rather than increasing their number, and the secessionists of northern New South Wales, apart from any constitutional difficulties, will need most cogent argument to convince the •State that its division would make for economy or progress. All the same, the fact that an ex-Minister associates himself with the movement is proof that the people of New South Wales have been deeply stirred by the talk of debt repudiation.