HEREDITARY TITLES
‘■SURVIVAL OF MEDIAEVAUSM.” PROPOSED ABOLITION. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association). LONDON, May 9. The flouse of Commons read for the first time Mr A. W. H. Ponsonby’s Bill to terminate hereditary titles introduced under the ten minutes’ rule. The Bill allows the holder to renounce a title, and no heir or heiress born after the Act is passed will be allow’ed to succeed to a peerage. He claims that the Bill erred on the side of moderation. The hereditary principle was a survival of mediaevalism, he said. The dignity of merit and distinction was rapidly disappearing from the peerage, and party payments, beer and whisky, were taking their place. Hereditary titles ministered to vanity, encouraged corruption, and led to snobbishness and flunkeyism. Mr Ponsonby (who is Labour member for Brightsidej added that the Labour Party, when it came, into power, would not confer hereditary honours.
The Speaker inadvertently forgot to put the question to the noes, so the motion was registered as carried nem con.
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Bibliographic details
Southland Times, Issue 18938, 11 May 1923, Page 5
Word Count
170HEREDITARY TITLES Southland Times, Issue 18938, 11 May 1923, Page 5
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