BIRTHDAY HONOURS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19497, 4 June 1925, Page 8

BIRTHDAY HONOURS.

It will be cordially recognised that Sir John Hosking (to give his new title to the highly-esteemed ex-judge who recently retired from the Supreme Court bench) well deserves the distinction which the King has conferred upon him. There was sincere regret in the community, and particularly in the legal profession which he had adorned i for just on half a century, when considerations of health constrained him to resign after a tenure of judicial office below the average in point of duration; for lie had proved himself to ho a very capable judge, alike on the civil and criminal sides of jurisdiction,—-learned and shrewd and humane. There will be an equally sincere hope that ho will preserve his place for some years upon the roll of living i>ew Zealand Knights. The name of Major-General (now Sir George) Richardson is honourably known in New Zealand, whore he performed valuable administrative service, following upon good work in the Held, and, still more noticeably, by unremitting and successful labours in England in connection with the welfare of the soldiers of this dominion. The writer of one of tlio official histories of “New Zealand’s Effort in the Great War.” after enumerating some of the intricate ana manifold problems of the situation (“personnel, supplies, ordnance, contracts, accounts, health”), observes: “They were one and all handled by Brigadier-General Richardson with confident and easy mastery, and with regard to the interests of the Now Zealand private soldier.” The general had been a private himself. It is added that “of his many services not the least valuable was a passionate zeal for the cause of education in the Force, and for the training of disabled soldiers in particular.” More testimonies might he cited from various quarters, but the grounds for Sir George Richardson’s titular preferment are sufficiently conspicuous. The bestowal of the historic Garter upon the Earl of Oxford and Asquith may be separate from the birthday list. The veteran statesman cannot complain of neglect, especially considering that the King’s present advisors are his political opponents. When the Conservative leader gracefully recommended the protagonist of the Parliament Bill for an earldom there were some genially ironic comments allusive to the whirligig of time and its revenges. It is, of course, not r.nlikoty that in the bestowal of the Garter the Sovereign exercises a personal prerogative of choice.