The Daily News. TUESDAY. JANUARY 7, 1913. TITULAR DISTINCTIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 195, 7 January 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY. JANUARY 7, 1913. TITULAR DISTINCTIONS.

The distribution of New Year honors 'has, of course, caused a certain amount of heart-burning, but, singularly enough, this has not been confined so much to disappointed candidates as to their supporters. It seems a sin that this particular matter should be made the subject of a political controversy, but the Timaru Herald, which is notoriously conservative in its convictions, has not hesitated to make political capital out of even the honorable dispensations of the King. It finds in Mr. Massoy's failure to recommend himself or any of liu colleagues for a knighthood an opportunity to make another of those cheap sneers at the Liberal Ministry which seem to afford such exquisite delight to some people. '"The Massey (iovernment." it says, '"'has sought no honor for itself. A Government which includes 110 titles may seem a little strange after the glittering decorations with which so large a proportion of the members of the Liberal Ministry of Sir Joseph Ward were adorned." Of course, our contemporary wishes its readers to infer that while the present Ministers have sought no titular distinctions for themselves, their predecessors in office eagerly laid their hands on every bauble of the kind that came within their reach. If it cost Mr. Massey any effort to deny himself a knighthood, he has to be congratulated upon his common good sense. After all the ridi-

cule he ihas heaped upon the "handles" to Ms opponents' names- he would have found a title a rather embarrassing possession, as a southern paper has put it. As for the "glittering deviations with which the members of the Liberal Ministry were adorned, thera is every reason to believe that not one of these was bestowed on the recommendation of Sir Joseph Ward. His own title came to him unsought, and that of knighthood really against his inclination. Sir John Findlay's knighthood was a spontaneous recognition by the Home authorities of his services at the Imperial Conference, and Sir James Can-oil's was an expression of goodwill from the King and Queen, earned during their memorable tour of the Dominion some years ago. Of the five recommendations outside the Cabinet which Sir Joseph Ward actually made, two were in favor of political opponents Sir William Russell and Sir George M'Lean, —one in favor of a distinguished Judge, Sir Joshua Williams, one in favor of the newly-appointed High Commissioner, Sir W. Hall-Jones, and one in favor of a great captain of industry, Sir James Mills. This is the foundation upon which our Timaru contemporary has based its sneer at the "glittering decorations" of the Liberal Ministry. We can well afford to "overlook this political littleness at the moment, and to join with the Opposition Press in heartily approving of the titular distinction which has been bestowed upon Sir W. C. Buchanan, a tried and honest member of the party in power, whose wide beneficence and sturdiness of character have won. for him an esteem that reaches far beyond his own constitueney.