AUCKLAND AND THE EXHIBITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19140, 5 October 1925, Page 7

AUCKLAND AND THE EXHIBITION.

Sir,-Was Kipling joking when he said, "Last. loneliest, " loveliest, exquisite, apart"" It was a sorry poetry, but as an inspired anticipation of our attitude toward the exhibition at Dunedin it was a brilliant forecast. lour report of Saturday gives the f°ll™mg sums for other courts :-~Otago £7OOO, Canterbury £5900, Wellington £6900. while here in the premier province and queen city we have raised a bare i-WW. Further, other courts are in while our contracts were only let last today. We must be "lovely" to onlookers, we are certainly the "last," and we seem in a fair way to be " exquisitely apart, unless the undoubted energy and resources of our citv can he harnessed to the enterprise. What is the cause of the apathy mentioned ? Surely not the "loneliness of a parochial sentiment that cannot recognise a national exhibition held anywhere else but in Auckland ? There was comment on our lack of representation at Wembley. This "lonely" idea can be carried "too far. If now we stand aloof from Dunedin what about a few years later, when Auckland organises the Great Pacific Exhibition and we expect Dunedin and its province to be represented at Auckland ? Surely New Zealand is too small for one part of the common body to take no more than a casual interest in another, and if the North likes to flatter itself as the head, it need not forget that it is walking on a food deal of Southern capital. For goodness sake let's get toeether and realise the disaster we invite by unconstructive criticism and delay. All honour to the committee that has striven to give the city and province the place it should occupy. Every public body has representatives on that committee, and if other leading men are needed the opportunity to appoint them will occur at the meeting announced for Monday. The exhibition articles of association provide that every penny of profit shall go to charities throughout the Dominion. It is not, therefore, as Mr. Wowdworth suggests, a money-making business. S.O.S. Auckland, Oct. 3, 1835.