THAT C.M.G.-SHIP.

Evening Star, Issue 8407, 7 January 1891, Page 2

THAT C.M.G.-SHIP.

(From Our Own Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, January 6. The ‘ Post ’ says:—“ So it seems that Mr John Roberts did not refuse to accept a knighthood or express an extraordinary preference for the lower degree. The ‘Otago Daily Times ’ is now forced to confess that its explanation as to Mr Roberts’s extreme modesty was only an addition to the other blunders which appear to have been made in connection with the affair. Mr Roberts, it seems, was consulted as to the form the recognition of his public position should assume, and Mr Roberts on the occasion would appear to have exhibited all the bashfulness of a maiden listening to her first proposal. He was coy and modest, and apparently wished, while murmuring that he was quite indifferent as to whether he got anything at all, to convey the impression that he fully expected to have a knighthood pressed npon him. Probably no one is more disappointed than Mr Roberts that his false modesty was accepted as the real article, and only a Companionship given to him. If Mr Roberts had simply let it be known that, while not regarding the matter from any personal Eoint of view, he thought the position he eld worthy of the same recognition as that accorded elsewhere under similar circumstances, there would have been no difficulty or misunderstanding about the affair. Precedent would have been followed, and the president of the New Zealand Exhibition would have been honored as the presidents of other exhibitions have been by a knighthood. Mr Roberts evidently has himself to blame for precedent being departed from in the present instance ; bat we do not think that those who accepted his professions of hnmility and modesty as entirely genuine are altogether blameless. They might have been a little more clearsighted, and also have remembered that the Kition was not one solely affecting Mr erts as a private citizen, but one in which the position of the colony should also have been considered. Whether it is His Excellency the Governor or the Home authorities who are responsible for the form of Recognition finally decided on it is, of course, impossible to say, but the best course which Mr Roberts could now take in order to extricate himself from a false position, to maintain the dignity of the colony, and to put things as right as they can now be made would be to respectfully decline to accept the inferior decoration which has been offered to him.”