Thursday, March 7, 1918. Local Agitations and National Interest

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16154, 7 March 1918, Page 6

Thursday, March 7, 1918. Local Agitations and National Interest

The people of North Canterbury and AVestland, who have been aroused by the tunnel agitation to the necessity for taking steps to safegunrd and promote their own interests, will be interested to know that a South Canterbury League has been formed, with headquarters at Timaru. This new body has had tho satisfaction of receiving congratulations from the Otago Expansion League, and the "Otago "Daily Times" expresses approval of the statement by the Otago body that "with such active bodies on eith?r "sido of us as tho Southland League "and what the South Canterbury " League will grow to we shall bo able "to make such pressure upon the "powers that bo that the needs of the "southern part of the Dominion shall " not be overlooked in the manner "they have-too often been in the ,r paft." So far as North Canterbury is concerned, there is nothing in this suggested southern alliance that need arouse alarm or hostility. On t.he contrary. North Canterbury cannot bas profit from every movement that calls attention to rights ignored or just claims neglected on this side of Cook Strait. But wo wish hero only to I

call attention to the most important 'Bignis<aaoe of tho formation of theso provincial Leagues for the defcr.ce of provincial rights. If this country were managed on sound ' principles, there •would bo no need for these defensive •, although, of course, there ■ would be room, even tinder tho Lest '.Mnd of government, for provincial •Leagues founded with the object of 3>romoting the healthy growth of the provinces and of making full use of s.ll opportunities of development. I But the Otago Expansion League, the South Canterbury League, and tho! iArthur'B Pass Tunnel League are defensive in their purpose. They have 'bjen rendered necessary by the difficulty of securing without persistent

agitation due attention to the claims of the districts concerned upon ti-e general government. They aTe the result, that is to say, of a thoroughly unsound policy of national development. It would bo wrong to say that there has been no system or method in the development policy pursued by the present and preceding Governments. There has been a system, but it has been as bad a system as can be conceived, for it been based upon a conscious i ejection of the national interest as vbe criterion of sound policy. Lndei ti.'s T.vstem the Dominion has not been treated as a whole consisting of parts in which the developmental needs arc all different and for which provision should bo made out of the national funds with the sole purpose of securing the largest and promptest benefits for the nation as a whole. It has been treated as consisting of a number of

provinces mutually antagonistic in their greeds and .jealousies, which it is the business of the Government to soothe and keep in an amiable mood — a result which calls for a carefol estimate of the temper of the various districts and of their capacity to hurt or to help in political conflicts. The present Government did not invent this evil system., nor did tho preceding Government, but by maintaining it the present Government has assumed a responsibility for it equal to that of those who first established it. These defensive Leagues should not be necessary ; the faqt that thev have become necessary is a grave indictment of tho Government of the day. Their formation will not greatly improve the existing conditions. At the most the Leagues in this island may be able to secure the removal of some of the injustices so long submitted to by the populations on this side of Coox Strait. There is only one remedy, and that is through the making of a carcful survey of the developmental needs of the whole country, and the keeping of the survey up to dato as tho basis of the general government's developmental expenditure, whicn must be made no longer subject to party or political considerations.