A LOST TITLE

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 128, 24 February 1930, Page 13

A LOST TITLE

MR. T. M. WILFORD, K.C. With his assumption of the. High Commissionership, Mr. T. M. Wilford, K.G., has forfeited his right to the use of the title "Honourable,” since he is no longer a Minister of the Crown and as he did not complete over three years’ continuous service as a member of the Executive Council. . „ * Members of the Executive Council of New Zealand, who in almost every case hold Cabinet rank as well, are entitled to retain for life the title “Honourable’’ alter the completion of over three years’ continuous service. When the position has been relinquished this privilege is conferred by His Majesty the King, acting on advice tendered by the New Zealand Government, and is announced by way of “Gazette” notice. The most recent example of this procedure was furnished when the Coates Ministry went out of office. The Right Hon. J. G. Coates, the Hons. Sir William Nosworthy .-.nd Sir Maui Pomare, and the Hons. W, D. Stewart, A. D. McLeod and G. J. Anderson, all of whom hnd complied with the condition referred to, retained the title of “Honourable.” There was. bpwever. no similar qualification in the cases of the other members of the Cabinet, Messrs. R. ,A. Wright. .1. A. Young, K. S. Williams. O. J. Hawken, and F. .1. Rolleston.

It would be quite competent, of course, for the Prime Minister to advise His Majesty to confer the lost title on Mr. Wilford. Whether Sir Joseph Ward would see fit to depart from precedent in that manner is, again, a different matter.