Southland were powerless to stop Wellington powering to a fifth consecutive win.
The Lions brushed aside the Stags 36-12 in Porirua on Saturday afternoon.
Wellington have picked up a bonus point in all five games and will travel south to play Otago at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Wednesday night.
The home team started brightly when halfback Kyle Preston dived over from the base of a ruck in the sixth minute.
Second five Riley Higgins jigged his way to the line to finish off a tremendous team try, where the ball went through an uncountable amount of hands.
Wellington had the wind at their back in the first half and made good use of it.
They did not need the breeze for the next try, though. They drove over from a 15m lineout and former Highlanders hooker Leni Apisai had the ball in his hands when the Lions flopped over the line.
Winger Stanley Solomon secured the bonus point for four tries when he skipped across the line in the corner midway through the first half.
The Stags went into the break trailing 24-0.
Their pack had worked hard without reward, and lock Shneil Singh had a good opening 40 minutes.
If anyone knows how to play into the wind, it is a Wellington team, and they almost opened the scoring in the second half.
Solomon hauled in a skip pass, stepped inside and went over in the tackle but could not get it down.
Flanker Hayden Michaels crashed over for Southland to spark some hope for the Stags. He got a nice pass from halfback Lachie Albert.
They needed to score next if they were going to create some doubt in the Wellington ranks.
Instead it was Lions centre Peter Umaga-Jensen who crossed in the corner untouched, following some nice work in the lead-up by loosie Peter Lakai.
The Stags never gave up, though. And they scored the try of the game which may have gone through even more sets hands than the Higgins five-pointer.
Experienced centre Isaac Te Tamaki stepped inside two defenders to finish off an 80m sweeping move which started from a cheeky quick tap on the 22.
Wellington landed the last blow. Fullback Tjay Clarke got on the outside and sprinted off from 50m out to score.
NPC
The scores
Wellington 36
Kyle Preston, Riley Higgins, Leni Apisai, Stanley Solomon, Peter Umaga-Jensen, Tjay Clarke tries; Jackson Garden-Bachop 3 con
Southland 12
Hayden Michaels, Isaac Te Tamaki tries; Jake Strachan con
Halftime: Wellington 24-0.
