Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1881.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 41, 17 February 1881, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1881.

In his speech-at Motueka -on • Monday night- \ Mr. Hur^thoupe called, attention to the great, disadvantage "'under ~ which Nev. Zealand labors in the jealousy . existing between the \ different. Provincial districts, eacb' of . which considers its'owh' interests bf far great e i -importance than those ot the colony as a whole, and he showed to what.ao, extent this feeling is carried by the fact that >n the, selection of a member of the , Cabinet 1 , fche ; first question 'asked ._/ Wherfe db.s'he come from ? andnot, Is be'.fifcted, for; [the; office ? .JNpr matter; hqw j_at js,f actqry^ the ; renly that may be given to this last query j it avails nothing if by placing in the J/tinis.try the indidual df'wlibm ifc is ; asked an 1 undue preponderance should be given to any one.particular locality. It is no : ne.w, discovery , that Mr Hursthouse has made, and unfortunately, his assertion' is only too correct!' if it were : required, ample confirmation would be supplied by ,an article, that., appeared .in. tbe ''Evening Post of Saturday last, arid which we reproduce on the fourth page to-day. The theme is " The Ministerial Vacancy ," and our contemporary is speculating on the possible successor of Mr Bryce, and in the article we find such expressions as the following :— " We have not the slightest idea who is the coming Minister, and we really : dq not very mubh care, : excepting that we maintain the undoubted claim of Wellington to' be represented in the. Cabinet." Tbe Post takes rank among the leading journals of the colony, and yet we find it gravely assuring its, Wellington and colonial readers that it '? does not very much care" who is appointed a Minister of tbe Crown so long as he is a Wellington man. Again: "To give a third Minister to Canterbury or Otago— each already possessing two— would arouse the intense- jealousy and indignation of the less favoured parts of the colony, and not unreasonably so." And again: "It may be taken for granted that no Ministry would be so infatuated as to inflame interproyincial jealousy hy giving any one locality three votes in the Cabinet." "We are told, on the highest authority, that a house divided against itself cannot stand ;if the same rule be applicable to a colony, is it uot a wonder how New Zealand has stood so long, and does it not become a question of very grave importance how ifc 'ia to continue to stand ? For, much as we may regret it, there can be no question that our Wellington contemporaryia only giving utterance to the prevailing public opinion when it speaks of the Intense jealousy existing between the various parts .pf; the colony., Otago, Canterbury, Wellington, Auckland, Nelson— each of these would infinitely prefer that an inferior man from its own district, who' was likely to obtain for the locality from whence he came a large share qf tbe public expenditure, Bhould occupy a ae^t in.the Cabinet, than that ifc should . oe-flUed'.by one who wiai far abler, far better fitted for the post, but tc_ whom there was the insuperable objection that some other $art of the : colony could claim h Jtek*S itß "?ptfrf-! Aiid there isjittle likelihood, $£ tjtis Wre'.g.hed{.feeling.;ipf' jealousy but, onlhe contrary, it is more probable that it will grow and increase.. Born of pro.yinc_alisw,rirhas-l3,eetf nursed and fostered by the system introduced by Sir Julius Vogel of borrowing millions first and scratu-

h t .i |V -,«...,■ i, .■■■■_.. ■»•;■ „._l..r ,i. ..-i-.,, _._._.■■ bliug for them afterwards. We are creatures of habit, and we' have got. into the habit of grabbing at every penny of public money that comes within bur reach, or that we fancy ought to be within our reach, and rather than see that penny laid out in a district where the expenditure would do good, and prove remunerative we would prefer to have it wasted in our own particular locality. By " we," Ave do not mean Nelson or Welling-' ton or any one Provincial district to the exclusion of the rest. In this respect all are bad alike ; and the period at which any improvement may be looked for is indefinably distant. In the meantime all we can do is to deeply regret the existence of such a feeling in our midst, and to feel heartily ashamed, not so much of the appearance in an influen. tiai New Zealand journal of such an article as that from which we have quoted, as of the fact that it conveys a too correct idea of the state of public opinion on a question of such general importance as the appointment of a Minister of the Crown.