THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Friday, January 3, 1947. NEW YEAR HONOURS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26350, 3 January 1947, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Friday, January 3, 1947. NEW YEAR HONOURS

For some years past, and including last year, the New Year honours lists have been largely devoted to the recognition of services more or less directly connected with the Empire’s war effort. Last year’s list, indeed, was the most comprehensive in history as befitted the occasion of the conclusion of the most severe trial the nation has ever had to withstand. This year the list is of more traditional nature. It is shorter, and the awards which have been conferred are chiefly in recognition of long records of outstanding professional and educational work. The New Zealand list may be described as representing a very conventional choice. This, however, is no aspersion on the new dignities of the recipients; it is merely to say that the selections are based on obvious merits and that there are no surprises and nothing to which exception could be taken. The recipients are to be heartily congratulated upon the deserved recognition of their abilities and the devotion with which they have applied them to the services they have espoused. The outstanding honour to be bestowed on a New Zealander on this occasion is the admission of the Chief Justice as a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. While some such gesture was to have been anticipated, this honour is more than a conventional one for Sir Michael O’Leary’s eminence in his profession is such as to have prompted his recommendation before this. The people of Dunedin, and especially those in University circles,- will be well pleased with the knighthood of Sir Charles Hercus. As dean of the Medical School, hie has made full use of his opportunities to foster and extend the interest in scientific research for whiqh he had been earlier distinguished. The honour to Sir James Hight is another which an outstanding academic record, as rector of Canterbury University College, had earned. For the rest, satisfaction will be felt with a list which extends honours to such men and women as Mr Alan Mulgan; Mr James Strachan, of Rangiora; Mr P. J. Twomey, of Christchurch; Mrs Helena Wise, of Wellington; and Miss M. J. Jeffery, of Dunedin. In the Empire list prime honour has been conferred upon Viscount Bruce, former Prime Minister of Australia and since 1933 High Commissioner for 'Australia in the United Kingdom. Viscount Bruce has had a long and intimate association with Imperial affairs, and the honour he has received merits full approbation. An interesting award is that of a barony to a leading member of the Trades Union Congress General Council, Mr Charles Dukes, who recently exercised a strong influence in harmonising the relationships between the Government and the trade union movement. It may be supposed that the acceptance of such an honour rests with the individual, but it is worthy of note that the British Labour Party is not opposed to the principle of such high distinctions. The exclusive Order of Merit has been wisely bestowed on Field-marshal Smuts and Mr J. G. Winant. Both of these awards will be deeply \appreciated both by the recipients and by the countries they represent. Mr Arthur Henderson, Mr Terence Shone, Sir Reginald Campbell, and Sir Maurice Petersen are others whose services in recent years have fully merited their recognition.