EXPENSIVE HONOURS

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20230, 26 June 1937, Page 28 (Supplement)

EXPENSIVE HONOURS

£730 TO BE » DUKE. ABOLITION OP FEES. “ Henceforward the fees and stamp duties demanded of the recipients of honours are to he abolished, and Mr. Chamberlain announced in the House that a clause to this effect will be Included in the Finance Bill,” states an English political writer. “ I forget the origin of these levies, but they go baok 400 years at least, and their proceeds were handed over to the officials upon whom fell the duty of Issuing the appropriate letters patent. In our own day It has oost a man a minimum of £730 2s to he made a duke, £6BO 2s to be made a marquess, £530 2s to beoome an earl, £430 2s to be a Viscount, and £330

2s and £270 2s respectively to be , made a baron and a baronet. “in practioe these exactions bu’O been pretty generally waived. When the lata Mr. Balfour beoame a peer he was liable to the Crown Office for over £2250. He got ofT scot-free. So did Earl Beatty. So have most of the men who have been raised to the peerage after distinguished careers In the services or as governors-general. The idea has gradually spread that there is a point beyond which you,can--1 not mulot a man whom you are determined to honour. Lord Bvng, who stood no nonsense from anyone, flatly refused to be muloted at all. He was agreeable to being made a viscount, but he simply would not pay the fees. Their abolition, not only In his case but In all cases, wipes out a certain taint of ungraolousness In the conferment ol these high honours.