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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4766, 1 July 1876, Page 2

The advocates of provincialism hold that one of the most noble outcomes of their pet system of government is to be found in the beautiful and “healthy rivalry” which it induces between different districts and towns. There may be something in this, but that something is lost sight of when we find that the provinoialists terra a system of wholesale abuse a “healthy rivalry. ” The Auckland Evening Star has recently been doing its utmost to promote the “ healthy rivalry” aforesaid between Auckland and Wellington, by abusing the latter place, its harbor, and its inhabitants, in good'set terms. It is called by the Star the city of “ genteel snobbery;” and, with a most mixed idea of metaphor, it is termed in the same sentence “a self-inflated little frog” and “an old man of the sea,” which wishes to have a preference claim upon the Government expenditure at the expense of the whole colony. Wellington society is described as based upon a system of mutual admiration and “ caw-me-and-I’ll-caw-youism,” and, insliort, ashasbeensaid, that “healthy rivalry,” which it is feared that abolition will destroy, is exhibited in its liveliest and most demonstrative aspect. Now we have no desire fo promote this kind of “ healthy rivalry” by entering into a discussion with our Auckland contemporary, and we may say at once that if it could be only hoped that abolition would cause a cessation of “healthyrivalry” of this kind, it would be doubly welcome. But we may be permitted to point out that the debates ontheAbolitionßill last session, and the whole treatment of the question then and now by the Wellington Press, havebeen characterised by a "marked absence of anything like a disposition to promote the good of Wellington at the expense of ; Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, or any other part of the colony. The conduct of the Wellington members (and here we speak of the number included in the province) was marked by none of that eagerness to regard every question from a local point of view which unfor-

tunately was/the bane of the collective representation, of some other provinces. It is a singular thing that though the increase in the, population, and electors of Wellington during'the last five years has been very great, not a demand was made for an extra representative for the city during the passage of the Amended Representation Act, though every second member from other places was incessant in asking for increased representation for his district. We say distinctly, and we defy anyone to prove the contrary, that the attitude of the Wellington members in the House was of the most moderate kind, and that the representatives of other places themselves generously admit this fact, knowing that the Wellington members are ’ for their country first and their city afterwards, and may so be counted on to assist in, without envy, anything that may do good for Auckland, Canterbury, or Otago. In the face of all this, it does seem a pity that some Auckland ignoramus or another, posed for a subject on which to write, should find one easy, and it is to be feared acceptable to not a few readers, in a wholesale abuse of Wellington and its people, the text of his diatribe being taken from some very moderately put suggestions that it might be worth while to inquire whether the San Francisco mail service might not be more efficiently carried out for the colony if Wellington were made the port of call for the steamers, and the centre for distribution of mails in New Zealand.