FEES OF HONOUR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9104, 2 June 1908, Page 4

FEES OF HONOUR.

1 Two hundred baronets and knights whose titles have been conferred ■during the last three or four years received a surprise thfl other day in the shape of • a letter from "the Factor and Commissioner of the Walker Trustees, incorporated by Act of Parliament; holders of the office of Heritable Usher of Scotland. and entitled to the fees of honours pertaining thereto," demanding from each a fee in respect of his creation —£3 6s 8d in the case of knights, and £5 in the case of baronets. Not six of the two hundred had ever heard of Walker Trustees. It seems that the Heritable Usher of Scotland, until a few years was only one of many functionaries scattered about the United Kingdom who were entitled to extort perquisites from persons whom the King honoured with titles. The late Government decided to re-

lieve the victims of these irritating payments to men who did no service in return, so they, arranged with, the sinecure holders to relinquish their right to their fe<?3 in return for an allowance, which, "with that kindly consideration for the taxpayer which characterised all the doings of his Majesty's late Ministers, was charged upon the British public, through the Treasury." However, the Heritable Usher of Scotland, as represented by his legal succesors, ( the Walker Trustees, refused to be a p*arty to this arrangement, and the result is that a Scot who is honoured with a new title must pay toll to the Incorporated Usher while the ennobled Englishman or Irishman is relieved at the expense of the taxpayer. The two hundred titled gentlemen are going to fight the claims. The case affords interesting evidence of the survival of old customs at Home, and shows how easily money is earned at times.