A SECESSION MOVEMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 19 August 1930, Page 2

A SECESSION MOVEMENT

At J l ’" end of . Inst niontli a public meeting, attended by 2500 people, was held at Perth, and a vote was carried approving the secession of West Australia from the Commonwealth, and challenging the Federal authorities to take a referendum on the question at once. This may strike observers on this side of the Tasman Sea as rather an absurd demonstration, but there is no doubt that sooner jor later' Australia will be compelled to - 'take' 'it seriously. A member of the West Australia House of Representatives said recently in Sydney that' the pbople of his State wished to remain inside the Commonwealth, blit that they feel compelled to make an effort to relieve themselves from the disabilities imposed on .them by Federal legislation. The Navigation Act and the F'ederal tariff, which, while it encourages the growth of secondary industries ill the Eastern States, does nothing far the West, sire the most serious grievances.

The great areas in West Australia capable of producing wheat, wool and meat cannot be opened up or handled profitably unless special advantages can be secured for the primary producers, while they are ; building up these great industries. It may be remembered that, in 1921, the Federal Royal Commission on West Australia submitted a majority report, recommending that the West Australians should have control of their own Customs for 25 years; and the “man on tb© land” in the Western State believes that only along such lines as these can he find salvation—unless “Wcstralia” cuts itself adrift from the Commonwealth - altogether. This is on© of the many difficult and complex problems that Australian Labour, in the person of Mr Scullin, is now invited to solve.