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Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 118, 17 May 1909, Page 2

A (characteristic exemplification of, the belief of Aucklanders in Auckland, and their profound contempt for Wellington,' is contained in a letter written by a citizen of the northern ciity to a friend in "the little fishing cillage on the shores of Cook Strait." He remarks: "You Wellington people will want more than that £250,000 to straighten out your embecile local folly in 'booming' such a place. . . . The worst of it is still ahead of you, ajid don't you forget it. Take away (a) the money spent there by the army of Civil Servants, (b) the money left there by people who have business with the Government, (c) the money left there, by people who must pass through Wellington to go from one island to the other, (d) the money spent on account of transhipments of goods, to be consumed, and paid i or, in more prosperous parts of the Dominion, and what have you left? The trade of the Wairarapa and the West Goast as far as, say, Wanganui. Those things I have mentioned are not nrodiiced by Wellington—though she benefits by them. The progress of a city which is due entirely to the. production of the country surrounding it is more, satisfactory—more lasting, and not so lia,ble to be disturbed. You have no timber, gum, or coal. Our dairying knocks you silly, and we have more horned cattle in this province than in the whole of. the rest of the North Island. Our population (Auckland city and suburbs) is now 100,000, notwithstanding all your advantages, and Wellington is mortgaged up to the neck, while we are free. The money Wellington.lives on is not produced from within herself, but it is produced outside of her ; and when there/ is a general slump m the country, Wellington, being really a commercial junction, must feel it We will be' 250,000 of a city by the time you are 100,000', and living on what we ourselves produce, not on handling stuff for other's. . . . Your province is developed nearly to its best—nearly all broken in. Ours is much less than one-third broken in. What will it be when we are far advanced in settlement, and railways, roads, etc, as you are, if we can beat you.so easily now?"

The calf which the stoekrajser had taken the summer resident to see surveyed his owner and the stranger with a weary eye. "Er—what breed is your calf ?" asked the visitor., The farmer removed a wisp of straw from his mouth and said: "This critter's father gored a justice of the peace, knocked a lightning rod agent end over' end, and lifted a tramp over a picket fence, and ,as for his mother, she chased the whole of B anbury brass band out of town last Fourth of July. If that ain't breed enough to pay 15s for, you can leave him be. I'm not pressing him on anybody."

In future money orders for places beyond the Dominion must be obtained one hour and thirty minutes before the closing of the ordinary mail. This applies to mails closing between the hour? of 9 a.m. asv? 4 p.m.