Honours List change likely

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33279, 17 July 1973, Page 2

Honours List change likely

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 16. The Government would not abolish the twice-yearly Honours List, but it was considering replacing some honours with a special New Zealand honour, the Prime Minister (Mr Kirk) said tonight.

It might be called the “New Zealand Order of Merit,” but it would be given by the Queen, and she would have to be approached before any changes were announced.

Mr Kirk also said he was pleased that there had been no editorial or other criticism of the emphasis in the Queen’s Birthday Honours this year on community service. He intended that this emphasis would continue. [ “We do not intend to abolish the list,’’ he said. “There [is a place for an honours list [within a society, particularly [when the honours allotted [are related to services given beyond those one might expect as part of a person’s calling.” The last Honours List had, to a substantial degree, represented a greater recognition of community service, and there had been no complaints. “I take that to mean there was reasonable satisfaction with the nature of the list,” he said. The New Zealand Order of Merit might replace such honours as the Member of the British Empire, which was hardly apt in these days when there was no empire. Attention would also be given to such awards as the Police Medal, which did not seem to have the status of [the M.B.E.