THE BIRTHDAY HONOURS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20890, 4 June 1931, Page 8

THE BIRTHDAY HONOURS.

A perusal of the names in the iist of Birthday Honours leads to a realisation of the very wide range covered in the selection of recipients. They come, in the first place, as is not uncommon, from a great variety of pursuits in life. That feature of the list well evidences the current estimation of all useful employments as contributing to the aggregate of human good. Scattered throughout the list, not confined to either higher or lower degrees of honour, are so many occupations that it might almost be taken as a cross-section of a present-day community ; that is, when the representative character of the recipients is noted. " All service ranks the same" is a principle of the times, and this has fitting acknowledgment, even to the extent of including some pursuits that an earlier generation would have been surprised to see in such a list. It is not peculiar in this respect, for recent lists have had a similar breadth, and it would have been as broad whatever Government was privileged to confer with His Majesty as to whom he should honour. More striking, and even more suggestive of the times, is the large number of British lands represented. It is, in its own way, a little bit of Imperial history, telling of the spread of the British people and their serving activities throughout a wide realm. Turning to it in some distant day, its readers will have impressive reminder of the growth of the Empire and its intimate inclusion of very varied parts of the earth. Great interest attaches to many names because of personal merit, but this impersonal aspect commends the choice very remarkably.