NEW STATES IN N.S.W.

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 234, 24 May 1932, Page 4

NEW STATES IN N.S.W.

Interesting possibilities are suggested in a brief message , [tohi Sydney published y.esterday. Speaking at Temora, one of ;he principal centres of the rich Riverina distriet m southern ^ew South Wales, Mr .H. Main, the Minister of Agriculture m Mr. B. S. Stevens' new Cabinet said that the State Parliament - to be elected next month may be the last as at present constituted ; that if a composite Cabinet resulted from the election, a new State might he formed during the life of the coming Parliament. It is now more than a decade since an anti-Labour party had an absolute majority in the State Legislative _ Assembly, the Nationalists (now the United Australia Party) havr ing been dependent each time they have held ofiice upon Country Party support and their ministries having included several'members of that party. In this, Mr. Stevens' Cabinet is no execption, his team including four Country Party members, Mr. Main beiug one of them and it is improbable that the United Australia Party will obtain a clear majority next month. The significance of Mr. Main's statement lies in the fact that his party in the Riverina, and also in the even more wealthy and populous New England and Northern Rivers districts in the North is predommently favourable to the creation of new states embracing those districts Until recently, although the State and Federal electorates in the two territories have mostly returned Country Party members to Parliament, the people as a whole have been fairly evenly divided upon the new State question. Within the past two years or so, however, the movement has made considerable progress, nelped undoubtedly in recent months by Mr. Lang. The position of the leaders of the New State movement within the Country Party has consequently been greatly strengthened and it may now reasonably be inferred from Mr. Main's ^statement that seizing the advantage presented by Mr. Lang's dismissal and the United Australia Party's need of their support, they have made a pact, probably the taking of a plebiscite on the new State question, a condition of their support. This probability is strengthened by the fact that the two parties have agreed not to oppose each others sitting members in certain electorates. In the past an agreement on these lines has been repeatedly sought, but without success, the New State issue, to which the Nationalists are opposecl^ having proved the stumbling block. If our inference is correct and an agreement on the lines suggested has at last been reached, Mr. Main had ample warrant for forecasting the creatfon during the next three yearsoi* at least one new State, a majority of the people in the Riverina being definitely in favour of a break-away. In the North, also, it is more than probable that a favourable vote would be

secured. Should the secession of the Riverina and New England he accomplished, the eifect upon New South Wales as at present constituted would be startling. It is claimed by the rural population all over the State that Sydney is New South Wales for all practieal purposes, political and financial as well as industrial 'and commercial. For this there is considerable justification. The city and its environs eontains more than half the population of the State, it possesses or dominates more than half the Parliamentary seats ; it possesses the only developed port 'in more than 1000 miles of coastline and the railway and road systems have been carefully designed to make Sydney the natural centre of all lines of communication and systems of transport. The results have been, the country people claim, fatal to the healthy development of the State and Sydney has become in their eyes a kind of bloated octopus sucking the life-blood from the veins of the State and turning what should have been a prosperous community into the sick man of the South. For these reasons, the New State movement is essentially an effort on the part of the country people to break free from the toils in which they f eel Sydney has enwrapped them. Whether they would succeed in their object should they establish their new States is, however, a very open question. They would, of course, start out in life burdened with a proportionate share of the huge debt under which the present State is staggering; they would not have a developed deep water port between them, their railways would have to be re-designed and the financial power would remain in Sydney, at least until they could show that they were likely to succeed in firmly establishing themselves. The secession, however, would leave New South Wales with Sydney and very little else except the western wheat lands and a vast stretch of inferior gra-zing country running out to the far west. The strength of Sydney 's opposition to the New State proposals can therefore be imagined and it appears that Mr. Lang's departure, even though it be confirmed by the electors, has not solved all of his State's problems.