SLEEPY HOLLOW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 139, 23 April 1864, Page 3

SLEEPY HOLLOW.

The inhabitants of small provincial towns are notorious for their majestic conceit. L anion cannot bear comparison, in their estimation, with their own great centre of twaddle in iierksliiiv or Devonshire, where the squire's wife cuts the doctors wile with a crushing dignity, and furnishes lending articles for the provincial paper for a month alter, and where every littJe huxter's shop is ai least uu " emporium," and the penny easy shaving shop a " saloon." it the inhabitants of one of these great capitals were to set up a claim to be considered /lie capital of Jrjnghind, it would not at all astonish people, but the claim would certainly be refused witli thanks for the amusement it ailbrded, and perhaps with some remarks that would be considered too oil-handed lor the dignity of the people to whom they were addressed. Almost as preposterous and amusing are the claims of \\ elhugton to the capital, when viewed by the light of her present station and sUib'diti). and the rurioiis features of the habits and customs of its inhabitants occasionally brought prominently lorward. That the Wellington people are a demonstrative race and far from wanting in the article of confidence, must have been suiliciently apparent when they, came forward to endeavour to persuade the world in general that their own estimate of their pretensions to be considered the metropolis of Aew Zealand, was to be taken as the correct one, and that .Auckland w as a mere nothing in comparison to them, i'oiiitiug with a just pride io thenlew timber erections and their mic street, they exclaimed loftily, " let Auckland .show anything like this," to which Auckland's reply might very well have been the silent indication of her ■Supreme. Court House. Custom House, and l'ost Ollice, and her West Queen-street for instance, lint it appears that new and uukuown claims to notice yet remained undeveloped, and that Wellington* had not yet exhibited all the noble and spirited qualities of the race ol people inhabiting her bcautdul i.ni[iire City, nor her intense appreciation of them, which could lead her amidst the vast undertakings that have elevated her to the supremacy, to have devoted nearly tin* "hole columns oi' her newspapers for several days to the parading before the world and chronicling for all time in their imperishable sheets tlie spirited deeds which had so moved their own admiration and raised them m the admiration of strangers. Humbly following alter the Great City 01 Somewhere in Cook's poor little inlerior Auckland will please to observe, and to till iis papers with notices of the great and edilying spectacle which was ollcred there awhile agone. Cine insensibly glides into heroic language in recounting the great deeds of one tree and noble spirited but irate party, cyw-hiding another Irec and independent but oiiensive and traitorous gent, who, in language " not unto gents ideas according, hath riz, Alas ! the ready dander of the other gent, aud moved him a large cow-hide to get, and larrup him." Here is a subject for the leading articles of a metropolitan press. The groat revolution of Little i'edliugton with the Beadle, attended by his brilliant stall', addressing the furious mob of not less than six little boys in the memorable, words, " Ow do you all dare '?" was nothing to it. Until the Auckland newspapers come across the light of two little boys as the inestimable blessing of a subject for a leading article, they cannot hope to rival this. And let Auckland beware how it offends inexplicably the gallant citizens and searching newspapers of Wellington. It may, perhaps, maintain it supremacy, but it will bring down on it the displeasure of Wellington. In offering this judicious advice to the inhabitants of Auckland, we beg most deferentially to suggest to the Wellington press that they have omitted some of the most interesting details of the grand scene, so-voluminously remarked upon, which would afford matter for other three columns and gladden the hearts ot all the world; for instance, we have not been informed who was the seller of the whip witu which the party was whipped, nor who was the maker, nor the length and exact circumference of the handle and lash, and tly> respective lengths of the handle ami lash separately. Then we miss the description of the hats of the principal actors, with a shore history of the birth anil parentage of the makers, and the same with their coats. in real Yankee model journalism where, in a spirit of fatherly pride, a young lady J ) is lauded to the skies for her lady-lTke defence of her modesty, by making a commotion, of which Moll Flagon, in a state of intoxication, would be ashamed, in a church, and cow-hiding (sic) the offending man, and Hinging cayenne pepper right and left into the eyes of all wishing to interfere, in all such enthusiastic laudatory descriptions the greatest care is taken in giving an exact description of everybody and everything. And a

policeman cannot run after a stray pig, accord-. ing to Mr. lUisseli's description of America, without an article in the journals praising the I gentlemanly manner in which officer Brown, performed his not very delicate task, and giving the nameandlinealextraetion of the owners of thepig for several generations, the pigs breed, the name and historical associations oi officer Brown, and the name oi' 'the " help " whom he courts through the area raiiiugs, and an account of the lady-like manner in which she performs the delicate duties of her office, With the utmost deference, we beg to point cat to the Welling--ton journals these little points where there is still room for improvement; the accounts are still hardly sufficiently minute for an .Empire City of Cook's Straits wishing to shoT all the world the qualities on which it prides itseli' and founds its greatness. We admit that all the world admires and envies, but before it can accord unqualified • praise, it seeks for perfection. Auckland newspapers do not choose subjects of such vast general importance, and do not therefore require the same accuracy of detail; but they do not for one moment enter into competition with the journals of the .Empire City any more than itwould venture lo do in its town and commerce.