Purchasing Titles

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 188, 7 February 1914, Page 5

Purchasing Titles

A CANDID REVILW. £400,000 FOR A I'KEIUGE. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright i'Oiidoß, February "». •Mr Gibson Bowles, who has <wt both with the Liberals and Conservatives, supplied a candid review of the allied purchase of titles. He asserts that the Conservatives' fund, which in 187-1 totalled £20,000. rose to £80,001) in the nineties. The Liberal funds, which weiv very low in 1870, reache. £7OOO in 1877, and stood at half a million in 1001. Th.'v are now estimated at fo ir millions He declares that £50,000 ha • been paid for a baronetcy, and anything from xloO.ooo to £400,000 for a peerage, lie says th.it on one occasion correspondence " passed between a party whip and a would-be peer. The hitter refused to puv the required contribution for the honor sought and the whip thereupon wrote express ing fear that his claim to a peerage could not be considered. The disappointed applicant, however threatened to publish the correspondence if his name was not included in the next* list of honors. When finally published his name was duly approved. Mr Bowles further asserts that eil.v brokers tout for baronetcy honors, their terms being £4OOO, with ffiOOfl lodged in a hank if the honor was obtained hesides 10 per cent, commission for*the man who introduced the business.

TO ABOLISH TITLES. Received (I. 11.,10 p.m. Ottawa, February fi. Mr. Burnham, in (] IP i| 01IS( , o f' m . mons, proposer! n Bill to abolish titles granted through the Government. Canada, he said, did not object to the King exercising his perogative. but she did object to the Cabinet recommending people for them. Such a course was contrary to the present-day spirit of democracy, and perpetuated class distinctions. Mr. Burnham declared that a regular system of barter and sale of honors existed in England, and he did not wish for the introduction of any niich system in a democratic country like Canada. Mr. Foster, Minister of Commerce, explained that the Canadian Parliament had no authority to abolish anv titles. However, he thought the people who .served the State were entitled to some recognition of their services. Sir Wilfrid Laurier pointed out tint the United States' tendency to seek , titles was growing;. The second reading of the Bill was i lost. ' )