ELECTIONS TO-DAY.
Secession Issue in Western Australia. United Press Assn. —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, April 7. General elections will be held in two States to-morrow, in South Australia and Western Australia. A referendum on the question of secession from the Federation is also an issue for the electors of the latter State, where interest is at fever heat. All the othei States are awaiting the verdict, as a decision in favour of secession is regarded as certain to have important repercussions in Eastern Australia.
There are 121 candidates for the lorty-oge contested seats in Western Australia. In nine electorates the members are unopposed. Never before in the history of the State have Ministers been so seriously challenged in their electorates
The high cost to Western Australia of remaining in the Federation is given by the Premier of Western Australia (Sir James Mitchell) as his chief reason for desiring secession from the Commonwealth. He has declared that the. contribution which Western Australia is called upon to make to maintain the Commonwealth is far beyond what the originators of Federation ever dreamed would be required, and is much more than that State, in its relatively undeveloped condition, can afford. The original estimate of the cost of Federation, he said, was 2s 6d per head of population, but last year Western Australia paid £9 per head, in addition to the excess cost of goods from eastern States, making a total cost of £5,879,000, or £ls per head of population. The cost of Federation last year absorbed more than the total cash profits of the whole of the primary and secondary industries of Western Australia. The total received from the Commonwealth was £2,166,000. and grants amounted to £913.000, so that the State would have been £2,700.000 better off outside Federation The tariff was of little use to Western Australia, and. with the fall in the prices of products, had made the lot of primary producers desperate
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Bibliographic details
Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 732, 8 April 1933, Page 1
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322ELECTIONS TO-DAY. Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 732, 8 April 1933, Page 1
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