The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. EDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 1927. MORE HOME RULE.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 April 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. EDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 1927. MORE HOME RULE.

Tin-: proposal to give Scotland Home Rule will provoke the retort that Scots already govern Britain, hut the Bill 'just circulated is likely to receive considerable support, says a contemporary, outside the ranks of the Scottish Labour members who are hacking it. Tt proposes to create a single House of Representatives with 1-18 members, and Scottish representation in the House of Commons would cease if the Bill were passed. The Scottish Parliament would leave defence and foreign affairs to he administered jointly by the Imperial and Scottish Ministries and would deal with all domestic affairs. This would mean Home Rule for England as well as for Scotland The proposal is advocated on the ground that legislation affecting Scotland is neglected. In fourteen years, according to a compulation made five years ago, there were only sixteen .Acts of any importance affecting Scotland, although (lie total number of public Acts passed into law was 650. Three-quarters of tbo revenue contributed bv Scotland, was devoted to Imperial services, and only one-quar-ter was applied to Scottish national purposes. The advocates of the Bill also complain that one-fifth of the whole area of Scotland is devoted to deer forests, and other sporting purposes, and they state that this means both the partial exclusion of Scotsmen from much of the grandest scenery of their native land and also the withdrawal of large tracts of land from cultivation. They claim that the economic development of the Highlands has l>een greatly retarded by placing the interests of sport before the welfare of the nation. Scotland lias had to apply English Housing Acts to her own conditions. It is claimed by the advocates of Home Rule that this hr led to an overcrowding in the larger cities to an extent that is far worse than anything England can show, and this is due to the fact that Scotland needs radical land reform and her own Acts prepared by her own statesmen in her own Parliament. Moreover, much English legislation is hampered by the claims of Scotland, and there are some who go so far as to say that Scottish influence is often predominant in the House of Commons. If so. it is not apparent- at the Treasury. Apart from that witticism, vve may be sure that Scotland’s representatives do exercise considerable influence in Parliamentary procedure at the Commons and in the Lords. . It has been well said the nation is the sale of the Empire, if not of the earth. On that account they pervade both directly and indirectly the politics of the country,

H granted Home Buie they should make a goed job of it—if they want it. Australia is a shocking example of these sectional forms ol Government, with the ruling Federal llou.se and the important State Houses. there is an enormous overlapping in administration, as also in the expression oi the laws of the land. With molro Holin' Rule in the United Kin;j----t licit.* would l»c t lit* tendency to djift into a like plight, mui with the present disclosures ol the Dritish Ijudgel. it is not extravagance, hut ratliei pcoiioinie.s the .Motherland needs. However, Scotland credit as we rightly do. lor so mueh of the brains of the family, we may leave the issue to them to determine, feeling sure that they will bo rational in all they may do or seek to undertake.