COLONIAL TITLES.
(The 1 Tablet.’) The Premier assured his constituents the other night that one of tiie questions to be agitated during the next session of Parliament was as to whether or not we arc to have a titled aristocracy established in Hew Zealand,. He declared his own intention was to resist such an establishment to the “ utmost,” and his constituents testified their approbation by cheers. This is certainly as it ought fo be, and there is nothing to astonish anyone of common sense in the affair, unless it be what on earth it was that over put it into any rational head to dream of such an institution being introduced amongst us. At home, a titled aristocracy is the last remnant of feudalism, it is a harmless one there, as well as one that has lost all meaning, but since the form of Government is a monarchy, it has its use. A regal court makes necessary orders of nobility, and a king requires to be surrounded, by lords, while the former retains his title the latter may also retain theirs. But with us an aristocracy of that kind would be a modern ruin. It would be neither useful nor ornamental, it would remind us of nothing worthy of record in the past, and would bo simply an encumbrance on the face of tbe earth. It would, indeed be worse than this, it would be positively mischievous and go far to develop? a certaih tendency towards snobbishness, widen we have already had occasion to notice. A false standard of respectability would be set up amongst ns, and the struggle to arrive at it would Iv; vulgarising and
debasing. We want a nobility, indeed, but not a sham one, we want men of noble qualities—nature’s noblemen ; of such a class wo can never have sufficient. But as tor titles, tinsel now, even where once they were true gold, no greater trash could be flung down amongst us for fools to squabble over, and ffir hypocrites and snots to pretend to honour.
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Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 113, 15 January 1879, Page 3
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340COLONIAL TITLES. Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 113, 15 January 1879, Page 3
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