`  == South island independence ==  == NZ South Island Party ==  Hi NM -  :I'm originally from Nelson, but living in Oz at the moment. Tell me more about the NZ South Island Party. What were their policies? Do you think that public support for South Island Independence has increased over the last few years?  To be honest, I don't know that much about their policies. I think they advocated some sort of partial return to the old provincial governments, like in the 19th century, making NZ into a federation a bit like Australia. As for support for independence, I don't think so. This is entirely a personal opinion, but I'd say you tend to find more calls for southern independence when there's a National government than a Labour one - Dunedin and Christchurch are the two staunchest labour strongholds in NZ, and because they usually both end up with several cabinet ministers during Labour governments they have a little more say in the running of the country. Certainly here in Dunedin the city tends to go through a major revival whenever there's a Labour government. BTW, you might find it useful to sign your messages with four tildes (~~~~) - that gives an automatic link to your user page. ... `