The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 1911. SIR JOSEPH WARD, BART.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14480, 29 June 1911, Page 4

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 1911. SIR JOSEPH WARD, BART.

It is amusing' to note the convulsions of indignation which have seized some of (he Government papers at the idea of (he hereditary distinction which has been accepted by Sir Joseph "Ward. The 'Prime Minister may chop and change every day of the week on ordinary questions of (lie Government's policy: lie may bring- down conlradiciory Land Kills every session, and they struggle to adapt -their dancingto his inconsistent piping, bui a small word added to the title of the leader of the " people's party " is a leelc which they can hardly swallow with the wryest i faces. Yet we are oot aware ef

anything in the past career of Sir Joseph Ward which would have suggested that he was opposed'to titular distinctions, or so-called baubles of rank and ceremony, Ho attached enormous importance to tho change in New Zealand's designation from "colony" to "dominion," which seemed to many people a matter of very small account, and took pleasure in acquiring for the House of Jteprcsentatives, as a fitting accompaniment to that honour, a new and splendid gilded mace, the emblem which Cromwell treated with contempt. His acceptance of the title baronet, for himself and his heirs in perpetuity, merely bears out David Hurum's saying that "there's .pst about as much human nature in some folks as in others, and perhaps more." The ' American Mark Twain knew very well ii jm" *^ e raco °* man * oves *• lord, and in loss degree, a baronet, and it is significant that these Old World titles tend to be most prized by the democratic communities which do not possess such institutions of their own, and make a great pretence of despising rank and privilege, I When Martin Chuzzlewit went to America, he found himself among' a nation which professed the greatest contempt,for all the ancient distinctions of ** effete " Great Britain, but whioh contained more colonels, majors, doctors, professors, and other men with titles than he Had ever met before. The world is full of people like the simple Norria I family ,_ who could see no sense- ■ in social distin&tions, but, having been to England, "knew all tha great dukes, lords, viscounts, marquesses, duchesses, knights, and • baronets, and were beyond everything interested in the least particular _ concerning them,"' ' corresponding, every! post, with four members of the English peerage. The highest price for British titles is still paid by American women. 'ln England they realise how little conneotioa ' there is necessarily between these ' titles and < desert, and for what mixed motives many of them are conferred. . Lord Melbourne declared it to be the finest feature of the highest of them all, the Order of the Garter, that "there is no nonsense of merit about it" An English writer, Mr G. W. E.:. Russell, observes with regret the discredit into which the knighthood has fallen 'since it became the:guerdon of ( the successful grocer." But decry titles how they will, there are very few people' who are not tempted by them when they have the opportunity to accept one. ■ Disraeli knew human nature well when he gave this character to St. Aldegonde, one of the hcroos of his novels, who. was heir to the richest dukedom in the kingdom: "He held extreme opinions, especially on political affairs, being a Republican of the reddest dye. He was opposed to all privilego, and indeed to all orders of men except dukes, who were a necessity." It has to be, remembered that the ' honour which has been given to Sir k Joseph Ward, and which will be borne by his descendant* after him, carries with it no privilege in New Zealand. Mr Cecil Ward, when he becomes, through no exertions of his own, Sir Cecil Ward, Bart., will have no seat in any House of Lords, will bo entitled to no feudal dues, and will still have only one vote at an eleotion. The additions to his name will merely mark him out from other Wards as belonging to the family which gave a Prime Minister to New Zealand. We cannot regard such a distino- ) tiori as having any calamitour importance to the Dominion as a whole, or much general importance of any kind.