Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY, MARCH 1st, 1920. OUR BIG BROTHER

Hokitika Guardian, 1 March 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY, MARCH Ist, 1920. OUR BIG BROTHER

G'AN'TJ.itnuitY is Westland’s lug brother. We were of the same stem and branch originally, hut in the old provincial days Westland chafed at the rulbig oi itis big brother so far away across the rugged snow-capped hills, and well it out for separation, am] West la ml came in for all the glory of a separate province ! But the glory was short-lived, the provinces came to be abolished, and AVostland now hopelessly separate I politically from Canterbury, had to f ind for itself. Just wliat we have been and wliat we are is told now by o.ir big brother. Canterbury is awakening to the strength and importance of the little brother across the hills, realising the little chap’s potentialities and possibilities, and is ready once again to

take us into the family circle. Canterbury has a Progress League a somewhat live institution, and tho League is alert as to wliat the 'Midland mihva v

could do for Canterbury and Westland, and the whole of the South Island, if the line were linked up with the East Coast system. l The League wants to see the Otira tunnel works finished, and to this end is starting an agitation which is not to cease til) the : ol> is finished,. In the long last Canterbury has come to realise that the Otira tunnel is “the biggest and aunt urgentf ontornriso the enuntrv has rr linnd ’’

and it rails at “the. long years of delay and neglect and makes .Uiong argument for the finishing of tie; job in a vigor, ous, clear cut circuiai it has jus tissued. Incidentally it rather fells the truth about AVestland, 'and even if the truth is rather plain-spoken fact, it at least has the merit that facts are recognised and that things are weighed as they are, and not as- they might be.

Westland in (lie circular referred to, is dcscrilicd as '‘neglected, backward, isolated Westland—the Cinderella of the provinces of New Zealand.” This i\s all too true, and is the cause of the effect which is stressed immediately following that over a quarter of a century of time, the population of New Zealand increased 75 per cent, while Westland decreased 2JS per cent. Tut the Teague faces the facts plainly and in. dances what might be done with the resources of the country; the dcvclopuent and trade which would spring up nice the line was through. It- is calculated for instance that in three •ears’ time the cool and timber traffic o Canterbury alone would save our big irotlier n million sterling! These are nly two commodities for a section of he New Zealand population, and give lit an inkling of the wealth to be created or conserved by the speedy completion of the through railway.

I Truly, us tin* Longue maintnins, “AVestInnd is nbsiirtlly mid cruelly handicapped .through isolation, wli il<» it possesses enormous latent weal Hi which the whole Dominion might share.” It appears to us that the national loss through the incumpletion of the line is greater than the provincial loss. Tn other words, it is of the greater importance to the Dominion to have the line finished so that it can more readily draw from A Vos I bind those commodities of coal and timber for which the whole countryside is hungering to. day. There is some hope for the cause nearest to our heart, to see this close interest in the little brother’s affairs by the stalwart brother across the hills j With his help to fight nnr great"

1 battle, justice and recognition will come the quicker, and the least we can do is to thank the Canterbury Progress League for its efforts which deserve so well to succeed.