The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 1884. INSULAR SEPARATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1644, 26 March 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 1884. INSULAR SEPARATION.

The cry of insulai* separation has been again raised in the South by the Middle Island members who are raging so furiously.over the increase on the grain rates. They demand that the Middle Island: railways shall be separated from the North Island lines, and a step of this character, if once taken, would inevitably lend up to complete insular disruption. There is, however, little fear of such a consummation, It the wish of the Canterbury members wero granted, they would merely jump out of the frying pan into the fire, , The Otago lines are m unproductive as the North Island railways, and if Canterbury were able to divide the colony to accomplish the selfish purpose it has in view, it would for a certainty be wanting next to throw Otago overboard. The Canter: bury members have been discussing the railway freight question from a provincial point of view, but it is evident that in the Assembly they must face it from a colonial basis. Possibly the outcome of it may be to place the control of the railways of the colony in the hands of a non-political Board to be managed as an ordinary business enterprise. This is a possible alternative aad one 'that is infinitely preferable to insular separation. The Canterbury members will have to . take some notion in the Assembly to satisfy' the strong feeling which exists

among their constituents, and if it should bo in the direction of removing railway management .from political control wo shall not be sorry'. The recent augmentation of freights is undoubtedly duo to a serious failing off in the customs revenue, and is probably a substitute for an addition to the Property Tax. But though it is essentially a political movo, and as such is open to gravo objection, it is extremely probable that a corresponding increase would have been effected had the railways of New Zealand been under llio control of a non-political board. We arc now in this position in New Zealand that any considerable reduction of railway freights will keep a Ministry in power and any marked increase will turn a Ministry out. Our railways, while, such is tho case, are a menace to all good Government, and they themselves cannot be made' reproductive under the political conditions which surround them. The real remedy is to hand them over to a non-political Board, If Canterbury members are not afraid to submit their grain rates to an impartial arbitrament they will vote for a Board of Management for the railways of the colony, ;