A TITLED DEMOCRACY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13462, 29 June 1907, Page 4

A TITLED DEMOCRACY.

For a professedly ultra-democratic xraimunity New Zealand is doing re- I narkably well in tho matter of acquiring titles. The enterprising young Wellington journalists who are preparing tor publication a "Who's Who in New Zealand" have evidently hit upon an idea which is likely to prove profitable, md perhaps later on they will give as a New Zealand edition of Burkes Peerage. Who will be so bold as to say that it will not be wanted in a few years? In the salad days of the land of the Stars and Stripes it was* commonly supposed to be pretty safe to address a ntranger as "General" or "Colonel," or at any rate humourists have pictured the county as peopjed mostly with re- X tired officers of high rank, the rest of the population being ex-occupants of tho judicial bench. The humourist historian who ventures to deal with New Zealand social conditions in the twentieth century will be able to people his stage with bolted 1 knights with all the letters of tho alphabet atta6hcfd to'their names. We may look forward, with pleasure or otherwise according to the point of view, to a long series of visits of our leading statesmen to London, each one bringing back with him a new title or some additional letters tacked' on to his own name, and a little packet of "sweeties" of a similar!, nature for some of those who stopped at homo to mind tho shop while he was aw.ay. It is not to bo supposed that all of us who cannot go to London, like the pussy-cat in tho nursery fable, to see the Queen, are going to rest content as plain Mr Jones and Mr Brown. Even those of us whoso personal vanities do not constrain us to bring pressure to bear on the authorities to send us a knighthood t or an hpnorary doctorship of laws will find pur wives demanding to be put on an equality with tho lady next door,, and as the process of the chain letter will be repeated, and each new title given will lead to the demand for half a dozen more, with the 'inevitable result, alas! that they will become too common. A simple knighthood will not, in course of time, be looked upon as an adequate reward for Services rendered, and a baronetcy at the least must be given to anyone who has signally distinguished himself. There is just the chance, of course, that the supply will He cut off at headquarters, or at any rate bo so limited that many of us will have to submit to disappointment. But that can be overcome by creating. a new colonial industry, ( with a * protective tariff, for the local manufacture of knights, and perhaps even a demand for lords and dukes. It is evident that a demand for titles is being cultivated in the colony, or fflther the Dominion, and the supply must follow. Seriously, though, and without any personal application, are we not in danger of introducing into the colony am element which is contrary & all <the accepted doctriiies of a democracy, by accepting for our public men honours which, however, much weight they may carry in such a country as England, are not held in the same estimation in a colony, where Jack is supposed to he as good as his master? ■