A LEGITIMATE GRIEVANCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9582, 31 August 1909, Page 4

A LEGITIMATE GRIEVANCE.

Mr R. M'Kenize. Minister of Pub- '. lie Works, has informed the people of the South Island that in his opinion the North had a legitimate grievance on the railway question. This has been known for many years to all who take the trouble to examine the conditions of the two islands, remarks the Auckland "Herald,"' but the difficulty has been that control of public administration has been ic the hands of Ministers who shut their eyes to facts and insisted that our Northern claims were mere parochial complaints. The South,' with a smaller population than the North, and with a smaller area of land suitable for settlement, has not only required r much greater railway mileage, but insists upon having a continued share in all new railway constructions. The result is that, while the South is threaded by railways of which many cannot possibly pay, the North has immtnse districts-'whicb are without any railway whatever, and practically without roads. SELF-RELIANCE. The system of doles for local works is anything but calculated to create a - self-reliant attitude in local govern1' ing bodies, while it has taught electors to value their representative in Parliament by the amount of money he has got for l:is - district. Instead of making local finance assured, the policy of inducl ing local bodies to look to the Government as their father has been instituted, says the "Mataura Eni sing." Even the Government's ■ land policy is not likely to create a t self-reliant yeomanry—the L Dac k" bone of any country which is for- " tunate enough to h,ave one. Rather - will their land taw* give rise to a Government tenantry, who will look t» the Government to assist them when bad times come, as with certainty they will. The whole policy of the Liberal party in New Zealard has been the opposite of what the Minister of Works contends it has been. Fortunately there are signs tkat the country has become" tired of . the so-c2Hed Liberals and is anxious for a change. May that change come } soon is the desire of every true and - liberal-spirited elector in New Zea--1 land. When it arrives, a self-reliant ; policy will be inaugurated, and the people will then lean, upon their own resorces rather than upon the ] Government. j