THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1880. ARDENT PROVINCIALISM.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2122, 11 December 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1880. ARDENT PROVINCIALISM.

The Anniversary Day of the foundation of the Province of Canterbury is rapidly approaching, and in one quarter, at least, much anxiety was evidently felt at one time that the festivities natural to such an occasion would be allowed to fall into disuse either through the apathy of the public or through the fault of a Government not fully alive to its responsibilities on the question. The quarter we allude to was the Sports Committee, for that body, through Mr. Haskins, wrote a somewhat frantic letter to the Mayor. It was as follows: —

City Council, December Bth, 1880. To his Worship the Mayor. Sir, —I have the honour, by direction of the sports oommittee, to ask you to be so good as to invite all good settlers of Canterbury to keep as a holiday the 16th instant, the anniversary of this province, as the Government professes Its inability to proclaim a holiday on that day. The committee desires me to add that unless you kindly accede to the request it is more than probable that the Province of Canterbury will lose the custom of observing this important day, which has, since its foundation, been looked forward to with peculiar pleaaure by its people. I have the honour io be, Sir, Your obedient servant, F. T, Hasxins

There are several points in this letter on which we would wish to comment, seeing that it is an effusion emanating from a body evidently animated by a desire to celebrate in a fitting and gymnastic fashion a traditional red-letter day—a feeling most praiseworthy in these days, when a spirit of distrust and scepticism is always ready to wipe out ancient landmarks regardless of the pain that may thus be inflicted and the injury done. Mr, Haskins, and presumably the Committee at large, earnestly asked the Mayor to invite all " good settlers" to keep the 16th as a holiday. It is evident that the bad settlers were not to partake in this general invitation. Whether the Committee thought that the innate viciousness of their dispositions would prevent these latter from enjoying the programme placed before them, or whether through motives of delicacy, the Mayor was to be saved the pain of communicating with the more ruffianly portion of his constituents does not appear. The fact only remains that the bad settlers were to be left out in the cold, uncheered by a call to the provincial marriage feast. The sorting of the sheep from the goats was, apparently, to be left entirely to the judgment of his Worship, who, seeing that his term of office is very nearly run out, wonld, probably, not be inconveniently particular. The Mayor, we are pleased to see, has avoided the snare and called upon all citizens, irrespective of their moral character, to hold " high jinks " on the 16ih. But, still, it may be instructive to turn to the picture evidently conjured up by the Committee of the sports as attended entirely by the thoroughly virtuous, out of whose ranks would be excluded all known to be at all shaky or frivolous in their general behaviour. Let us take one of the chosen ones on the 16th. Animated by the invitation of the Mayor, he would surround himself with his family, and having carefully instructed the younger branches as to the historical solemnity of the occasion, he would wend his way to Hagley Park. At the bridge, where voluntary contributions are collected, he would disburse half a crown for himself, half a crown for his wife, eightoenpence for his grown up son, a shilling apiece for his daughters, and sixpence for the baby, and modestly fending off the profuse thanks of the collector, ho would proceed on his way to the running ground. He would purchase a card of the races, with the reflection that it was the duty of a virtuous settler to patronise local printing establishments, and local industries at large, and would then settle himself down to conscientiously " do the sports." He might not be an athlete, but the consciousness that he had been invited by the Mayor would sustain him, and he would see the affair through to the bitter end. He would feel that ho ought to be enjoying himself, and that feeling would be heightened by the sound of the gnashing of the teeth of the bad settlers in the distance, who in outer darkness would be lamenting over their forlorn condition. The sports over, the model settler would return home with his family, a frugal tea would be partaken of, and the day would be finished by the eldest daughter reading aloud one or two of Mr. Godley's most exciting speeches. The bad settlor, on tho other hand, would bo driven in pure self defence into a lamentable carousal, and in all probability would end his day in the lock-up. This is the sort of picture that the Sports Committee had evidently in their mind's eye as a model for an Anniversary Day. But to proceed with the letter. Tho Mayor was invited to issue the invitation, because tho Government ''professes its inability" to proclaim a holiday on the 16th. It is apparently intimated by the committee that the Government harbor a against the celebration of Anniversary Day. They wish to blot out in an arbitrary and tyrannical manner the spirit of provincialism which tho holiday ; is likely to foster. In pursuance of j this machiavellian policy they refused to '

call upon the citizens to close their shops. The Government are presumed to have the power, but they " profess" not to possess it. Their duplicity is terrible to contemplate. Imagine the Hon. John Hall and the Hon. W. Rolleston, both exmembers of the Canterbury Provincial Council, and the latter even an exSuperintendent, conspiring in this secret fashion against the memory of old days ! The Honorable John and the Honorable William are, the Committee think, in command of the situation. One of the peculiar functions entrusted to the Government by the Legislature, and the nation at large, is to look after the due celebration of the 16th, and they are not doing their duty when they neglect the opportunity. The committee have grasped this idea thoroughly, and the latent sneer contained in the word " profess" will be most galling to those in power, should the letter under review find its way into the hands of the Executive Council. They will naturally wither under the combined curse of the Provineialist, the bicyclist and the tender yet damnatory reproof of the virtuous citizen and his family. The Government may be under the impression that they have no power whatsoever to proclaim a legal Bank holiday, or any sort of holiday, and that, if a mere invitation to tradesmen is to be issued, the Mayor is the man to do it, but the Sports Committee know better and have caught the Government red-handed in their wicked attempt. And finally the existence of a true, fine old crusted spirit of Provincialism is held by the Sports Committee to hang on the nod of his Worship the Mayor—- " Unless you kindly accede to the request of the Committee, it is more than probable that the Province of Canterbury will lose the custom of observing this important day," writes Mr. Haskins. O tempora ! O mores ! Has it come to this ? For nearly a thousand years the Romans celebrated the feasts in honour of the founder of their city, and they did this spontaneously and withoutany intervention on the part of the functionary who might have been held to represent the Mayor. And yet in thirty short years is the remembrance of the foundation of the Province of Canterbury likely to die out unless his Worship exerts himself. The memory of the Pilgrims is, the Committee hold, writ in sand, and it is the particular duty of the Committee to rewrite it. The Government is treacherous and refuses to act; his Worship is apathetic and requires stirring up; the Sports Committee alone combine energy with a burning Conservatism.