New State Agitation
Thursday 11 March 1920, The Sydney Morning Herald
NEW STATE AGITATION. DR. EARL PAGE'S VIEWS. TAMWORTH, Wednesday. Dr. Earle Page, M.P. for Cowper, addressed a meeting at the Theatre Royal, Tamworth, on the subject of the new State. Dr. Page stated that for 60 years the North Coast had been agitating for better communi- cation with the tableland. Millions of pounds could have been saved to the State if lines of communication between the northern districts had been constructed. Starving stock could have been relieved, and one district could have helped the other in time of trouble. Now that the motor car made communication easy the people of the tableland and the coast had become better acquainted. They now realised their interests were identical. Associations had been formed for mutual benefit, and they were solidly behind the new State movement. Hitherto all their efforts for betterment had been of no avail, because they had not been able to speak with the power of the whole population behind them. The Sydney poli- tician had ignored them. Tamworth, and in- deed all the northern country towns for the last 20 years, had made no progress. Parents had been compelled to leave the country for their children's sake, and opportunities for their future had been nil. They had made for Sydney, and the country had been poorer in consequence. Vested interests in Sydney had always been opposed to country de- velopment, and always would be un- til the new State became an accom- plished fact. Out of 90 seats, 48 were occupied by city candidates and 42 by country members, and country members were in rival camps, so that they were powerless when anything worth while for the country was under discussion. The result of this position was that the city got an unfair proportion of money spent on its requirements. Five-sixths of borrowed capital other than that spent on railway construction had been spent in Syd- ney on purely Sydney projects, including State bakeries and such like. The result of all this was that Sydney grew big and the country languished. In the County of Cumberland 1,000,000 people resided. Of the immigrants that arrived here before the war, 85 out of every 100 stayed in Sydney. Twelve out of fifteen who went to the country got work on the railways as navvies. Ten shillings per week in taxation was required from every family of four to pay war interest alone. Where was it coming from? No Australian Government was exercising economy. Our only hope was that this new State movement would help to develop our resources and thus produce money to pay the bill.
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