RAILWAYS EXPENDITURE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1057, 21 February 1911, Page 6

RAILWAYS EXPENDITURE.

Sir,—l notice that you endeavour very frequently to show that tho Government expenditure, notably in regard to railways, is very much greater in the South Island than tho North. Your contention cannot be denied. When, however, you havo boon writing on this subject, has it novcr struck you that perhaps tho Government expenditure in the two islands may not, after nil, havo been so unevenly distributed? If not, I will givo you a load in n direction which may raise a suspicion in your mind that your conteu. tions havo not been absolutely correct. We havo had local government in Now Zealand for over fifty years, and during that time the scat of Government has been in tho North Island. Tho fact of the capital being here is equivalent to a homo bonus being given to the. North

Island every day. Tho,State employs an nriny of workers, who reside at the seat of Government. Parliament itself is a huge milch cow for Wellington. Imagine what would happen to the city if tho cow was removed to other pastures. It must be admitted that it. would bo quite as convenient wero Christchurch tho capital city, for which in ninny respects it is more suitablo than Wellington", and were it not for tho huge sum that has been sunk hero by the Government the question of transfer might bo raised any day. I have not tr;cd to estimate the many millions that have gone in governing the country, of which tho south gets no monetary benefit nt all. Perhaps you might try and enlighten us on the point, and I think it is only fair that you should. Might I also remind you that in former times tho South Island supplied considerably more than a half of tho revonuo of this country. There was a time I have heard spoken of when tho South Island was snid to have carried the Xorth on its back. The future is a scaled book, but it is just possiblo the same thing may again occur. Possibly, after a little rcllecHqn, even you,-sir, may come to tho conclusion that Hie South is not robbing, and never, Ims robbed, tho North in tho matter of public expenditure. That tho South has at all times supplied its share of the brain nnd muscle which has pushed tho Dominion nlom;, I have never heard doubted. — I am, etc., .TU3TICE. Wellington, Fehrunry 18, 1911. [Our correspondent misses tho point of our contention, viz., that apart altogether from tho disproportionate expenditure in tho past, it is profitable to spend money on railway construction in the North Island, and unprofitable to spend it in the South Island. The North Island railways are showing nn annual profit, the South Island an annual loss.]