MY LORD MAYOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 222, 19 September 1928, Page 6

MY LORD MAYOR.

If Sir Kynaston Studd is elected the next Lord Mayor of London the appointment will be a generous tribute to the social work which he has conducted for the last twenty-five years. Sir Kynaston is one of the band of brothers whose names were famous in the cricket annals of the 'eighties. The most famous was C. T. Studd, who joined the China Inland Mission shortly after leaving Cambridge, and later devoted himself to missionary work in Africa. He published a book called "Rhymes of a Cricketer," of which one can only say that if he had been as poor a performer with the bat as he was with the pen he would never have gained a place in even a lower form eleven at Eton. The position of Lord Mayor of London carries with it many ancient privileges. The first Mayor was appointed in 1189, and in 1354 he was given the title of Right Honourable. Within the city boundaries he ranks next to the Sovereign and represents the Sovereign on certain occasions. Since the reign of Edward 111. he has sat as a judge and he attends the law Courts to be sworn in on November 9. The office is held for a year, and it is the custom for the LordMayor to be chosen by the aldermen from two aldermen nominated by the Common Hall. Generally, however, the senior alderman is chosen. For the last two years the senior alderman, Sir Harold Moore, has stood aside to enable an older man ■to take the honour. In the city the Mayor has [the position of a Lord Lieutenant of a county. He is given £10,000 a year to keep up the hospitality of the city, and also the use of the Mansion House with its furniture and carriages. The Lord Mayor usually spends at least another £10,000 out of his own pocket in maintaining the lavish hospitality for which the Mansion House is famous. The large dining hall can seat four hundred guests, and in 1851 the City Corporation voted a sum of £10,000 for statuary to adorn the rooms. The Mansion House has for long been a centre for appeals on behalf of unemployment and distress both at Home and abroad. The money thus raised is known as the Mansion House Fund. As the Mayor is not appointed for any political purpose and officially is a non-party man, the Mansion House appeals are more universal in scope than would be the case were the appeal made by the Government or by any religious body. The generous response that has always been made to any appeal coming from the Lord Mayor of London has been a witness to the generosity for which the people of Britain are famous throughout the world. Although the office of Lord Mayor is one of high dignity and ancient privilege in the City of London, it is doubtful whether the English people have such a high appreciation of its importance as have foreigners. For some unexplained reason they appear to regard the Lord Mayor as almost equal to the Sovereign himself, and credit him with a power and riches which he is far from possessing in actual fact. ' W.M