JUBILEE MEDALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 128, 1 June 1935, Page 7

JUBILEE MEDALS.

MUCH HEART-BURNING

MUDDLE IN AUSTRALIA.,

OMISSIONS AND MISTAKES.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, May 29,

A great deal of confusion, some indignation and much amusement resulted from the well-meant attempt to distribute medals commemorating the Royal Jubilee among the "deserving citizens" of Australia. The confusion was largely due to the fact that in a number of cases the recommendations had been duplicated —one coming from the State Government concerned, the other from Canberra. In no case was any one person permitted to receive or keep more than one medal; but the- attempt to straighten things out provided a certain amount of material for humour among those who declined to take "the great medal muddle" seriously.

The Mayor of Launceston was recommended for two medals, but got none, while his wife and the town clerk got one apiece. At a meeting of the Parramatta Town Council it was stated that two of the recipients of medals in that district were professed Communists and disloyalists. Matters were perhaps rather worse at Brisbane, where, in checking the list of 725 recipients, it was discovered that two were dead.

But little accidents of this sort caused much less annoyance than the failure of the State or Federal authorities to recognise conscious merit among the numerous people who thought that they deserved a medal and got nothing. The absence of all well-known educationists from the list was explained a little cryptically by the official statement that "certain classes of persons were excepted from those entitled to receive the medal, and amongst these were the lieadmasteio I of public schools." One wonders why. J

At Canberra there was perhaps more confusion and more public indignation evident than anywhere else in tbe Commonwealth. First there were bitter complaints from the civilians, who found that practically all the medals had gone to public servants. The business men appealed to the local Chamber of Commerce to plead their cause;- the clergy were annoyed when they found that "the cloth" had been entirely overlooked; and Canberra could claim the dubious distinction of being "the only capital in Australia where the matron of the hospital, the Chief of Police, and the Chief of the Fire Brigade were ignored." So harassed were Ministers by the protests that they received that they tried to balance things by distributing about a dozen medals secretly to "deserving citizens" whose names did not appear in the first list. Of course the secret speedily leaked out, and then there was more trouble. Distinguished People Forgotten. But the dissatisfaction felt at the Federal capital was largely a reflection of public feeling diffused throughout the State. In New South Wales it was quite easy to and fault with the distribution of this problematical distinction—the "Bulletin" described it more forcibly than politely as "about the weirdest example of official imbecility in the history of the State." Among the really distinguished people whose names did not appear in the list j were two V.C.'s, a Crown Prosecutor, I the Speaker in the first Holman Gov- j eminent, Mr. Henry Willis, Mr. J. C. Watson (once Federal Prime Minister, now president of the N.R.M.A.), Mr. Sydney Ure Smith (president of the Sotoietv of Arts), Brigadier-General Goddard (C.M.G., D.5.0., etc.)—no member of the Knox family (immensely wealthy rulers of the C.S.R), very few of our squattocracy—no Osbornes or Falkners, and only one . Dan & ar ' in the-face of these omissions, medals were liandedfi out by the score to exnublic servants, ex-firemen and expolicemen. Perhaps after all it would have been more satisfactory to get the medals struck out here and let the people who wanted them buy them. Cost of PurcMasing Medals. As a matter of fact the London mint offered to supply dies to the el^°" . mint to strike gold and siher medals ,

in two sizes. This proved too expensive a process, and London then offered to supply a quantity of the medals ready for circulation. A number of people seemed interested, but when they priced these mementoes their ardour cooled. The larger silver medal cost 25/, the smaller, 3/; but as it contained only 1/9 worth of silver it looked too like a coin of the realm to be ornamental.

As for the gold medals, they were priced at 60 guineas and 15 guineas respectively—quite prohibitive. But Australians never did attach much importance to medals—as witness the fact that great numbers of Diggers have never troubled to collect their war medals. The moral seems to be that it was a pity to expend all this time and trouble in distributing the Royal Jubilee medals.