THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1974, 22 June 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1880.

Ow all the jokes perpetrated on public men perhaps the most heartless on record is that perpetrated by Sir George Grey on Mr. Moorhouse. The latter gentleman was mainly instrumental in getting that important work, the Port Tunnel, brought to a successful issue. One would have thought that the greatness of the undertaking and the acknowledged success of the whole affair would have secured Mr. Moorhouse and his heirs in all generations from elaborate absurdities worked out by political foes or private friends. But no. Sir George Grey, with an ingenuity worthy of a better cause, has caused a Bill to be passed through the Lower House which is luckily unique in its character. Mr. Moorhouse and his heirs by this Bill are to be given a gold medal and a first class railway ticket. Of course the Government were quite unable to oppose the measure. The mover would have pounced down upon them at once, and characterised their conduct as a disgraceful piece of ingratitude. So the medal is to be struck, and the first class ticket made out in due form. And this, Sir George pointed out, was a move in the direction of entering upon a new field of reward superior to any knighthood or peerage. So that evidently he contemplated the formation of a class of ticket holders and medal bearers. Mr. Moorhouse is not to be the sole individual gifted with these high privileges. A now lino has been struck out, and an endless field of rewards has been opened up. First class ticket holders, second class ticket holders, wearers of gold medals, silver medals, and copper medals may be created at the will of a Ministry anxious to reward adherents. This brilliant idea of Sir Georgo Grey may indeed have its disadvantages, but, then, all original ideas have. The guards of trains in the distant future may be puzzled at the number of direct heirs turning up, say, on a race day. Or a college of heralds may have to be created with a view of keeping the true first class and second class blood as blue as possible. But we have Sir George's

word for the fact that the idea is a move in the right direction, and that the shoddiness of old world distinctions will be completely obliterated in the new process. What the effect on Mr. Moorhonse himself may be is not hard to guess. It may be confidently presumed that the effect will be nil. He is not at all likely to wear his medal on gala days, as our contemporary the " Star " suggests that ho ought. Nor is he likely to be transported with joy at the prospect of travelling gratis over the New Zealand railways. Ho is engaged professionally in Wellington, and probably seldom does more in tho way of travelling than occasionally to run down to the Lower Hutt. But, on tho other hand, he is somewhat of a philosopher, and a man not in the least greedy of wealth, so that the beautiful simplicity and cheapness of the nation's gift may have something of an attraction for him. It will enable him, when conversing with his heir, the future possossor of the medal and the ticket, to practically illustrate the beauty of the adage " that virtue is its own reward." It is somewhat singular that the only opposition to tho Bill arose from gentlemen who saw nothing absurd in the transaction, but who held tho view that there was danger in the process, and that a sort of patent of nobility was given along with tho " fixings." They were evidently afraid that a class would be formed who, by the haughtiness of their demeanour and their generally aristocratic bearing when on the move, woiild wound the susceptibilities of their more democratic fellow-travellers. But such an idea can only have been evolved out of tho inner consciousness of the objectors. Tho free pass system has been, no doubt, considerably abused on tho New Zealand railways, a much larger number than have any business to do so, using railway passes. But, as far as wo aro aware, tho demeanour of these pass holders is not notably overbearing. On tho contrary, the passholder generally produces his card or pieco of paper with a sheepish air, as if he were well awaro that, if the affair were thoroughly enquired into, ho would not come out of it with flying colours. So that it could hardly be from any unpleasant personal experiences that Messrs Murray and Andrews spoke against tho Bill. But one possible advantage has been gained by the discussion. Unless the whole thing is an elaborate joko, as we previously suggested, we have now clearly before us Sir George Grey's matured views on the question of a privileged class. He has at intervals gone into such hysterics about colonial honorables and the general iniquity of hereditary honors, that the Now Zealand public were anxious to know if his ideas were entirely negative, and if he only held the ultra view that any man who served the State was sufficiently rewarded by that very fact. We have now his general scheme before us. It is to reward individuals in kind. Much as in a dame's school, if a boy obtains a prize for drawing, he gets as a reward a box of paints, so any enterprising colonist may in future expect to be granted privileges connected with his sphere of usefulness. A gentleman who may raise the standard of the turf may expect the grant of a horse box for himself and heirs. A gentleman who promotes agriculture may expect the grant of a cattle truck, and so on ad infinitum. It is somewhat prosaic, but tho age is not poetic, and Sir George has stamped the idea as being the latest thing in political and social reform.

Every one, of course, must be delighted that the nation has taken upon itself to honour Mr. Moorhouse, and to recognise his great services in the past, but there will be many, we fancy, who will feel doubt as to whether the recognition is worthy of the donor, or is likely to lift the recipient into the seventh heaven.