Cracker: Titular Titilation
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Thanks Graeme.
"Ta" (long 'a') has many many meanings, and some of them somewhat unfortunate (e.g."excrement".) It is a term of *address* used in some hapu/iwi, originally was translated as 'friend', but has come mean, occaisionally, the equivalent of "Sir" (Taa Tipene O'Regan - whom I'd *never* address as "Taa Tipene" because of all the other connotations...and because I know him as Tipene-)
"Kahuraki" does have those meanings of 'prized, precious, honourable, 'chieftaness'
(gak!)' but it also has other meanings - I associate it with a variety of pounemu...I will hold to the old forms of honourable address.
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Ah, titles. So interesting. From the perspective of one whose dad was a Sir (and whose mother remains a Lady), I don't see the point of them really. My Dad thought the whole thing was a laugh, but I also know that he was a bit chuffed. And I can assure you, he never gave any money to any government. Never really got anything good out of it , except in the UK where these things mean something more than they do here, and even then it was stuff like better tables in restaurants. My mum likes it, but I have to say that people mostly think Lady is her first name, and not a title. So it gives her a little status, but not a lot. The best thing for me personally about the whole thing? Getting to meet Sam Hunt at Government House all those years ago. I still have somewhat of the hots for him.
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Funny you should ask, Q+Apremieres Sunday week, that's the 22nd I believe, at 9am, on ONE.
So opposite Mediawatch on RadioNZ - a programme that Russell pioneered.
And what has happened to Atttitude which is usually on at 9.30 - or is Q and A only half an hour?
TVNZ could have scheduled it anywhere - so they put it on at 9 am on a Sunday morning. Brilliant! -
Janet Frame got an Order of NZ to cap off/supersede the Commander of the British Empire gong she'd accepted a few years earlier. As one of her former minders from Seacliff, famously immortalised in Faces in the Water , had received the slightly lower ranked Order of the BE a couple of decades earlier for services to nursing, I guess she felt justified in accepting.
Funny how these things work. Seriously though, people who really lust after honorific titles should be allowed them, provided they wear a silly hat of their own design when performing mundane actions like visiting Pak 'n Save. Three strikes caught without one, stripped of the title. For life.
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Joe that is a very good idea. Or perhaps a more lenient method - they can be Sir, but only when they are wearing the hat. Any time they are addressed or spoken of when they aren't wearing it, the title is not needed. The more and higher the titles, the bigger and sillier the hat.
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You might want to check your facts on this one, Douglas Myers has never been Knighted
He probably didn't need a knighthood anyway, what with his beer baronetcy and all, given that alcohol vending is next to godhood in the NZ pantheon of achievements.
IMHO, one crafty way to dilute all the justifiable cynicism about the most senior honours of the list, whether they come with titles or not, is to amend the legislation so that appointments to honours at the level of knighthoods and above should be made by legislation in the House with the support of a minimum of two-thirds of its members. In the current overhang Parliament that would require 82 votes. That would reduce the temptation to reward individuals of debatable merit.
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How is this for a constitutional conundrum?
Now Scotland has its own parliament again, it is theoretically possible for Scotland to once again dispute with those Southern Nancies who is to be OUR monarch (should we even decide to have one). It is known that Liz had her nose put out of joint by being expected to fulfil her constitutional role and actually open our parliament every year and spend some time in residence at Holyrood Palace (which she apparently hates). This has not endeered her to the populace and Charles is an object of fun and derision. But Anne is a different matter, not only did she decide to marry up here, something Charles declined for a registry office do in East Slough. Anne attends every Scotland home game at Murrayfield and can be seen lustily singing Oh Flower of Scotland.
So, if my theoretical event comes to pass, maybe Wee Eck will win his referendum and we will become independent, who will be HoS in places like NZ? Assuming we choose a descendant of the Electress of Hanover as our monarch.
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BTW I suggest that the best way of getting to be a republic sharpish would be if NZ or Aus were to follow Scotland's example and demand the actual monarch to be in attendance. We have an advantage in that no Governor is in office in Scotland. I don't think the denuded office of Secretary of State for Scotland is enough to fulfill that role and no sensible Westminster parliament would attempt to foist a GG on Scotland. Such a person would be lynched.
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amend the legislation so that appointments to honours at the level of knighthoods and above should be made by legislation in the House with the support of a minimum of two-thirds of its members.
Don't knighthoods all come from the crown via the GG, upon advice of the government?
How could parliament make someone a knight anyway? Takes a monarch to make a knight by definition surely?
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So opposite Mediawatch on RadioNZ - a programme that Russell pioneered.
Yeah but it's shit now he's not on it... (kidding)
Fortunately, such are the wonders of the modern age that we live in - I mean we don't have robot dogs that do our laundry or food in pill form (although I did find these pills that keep you going alllll night) - that both Mediawatch and Q+A are viewable via the Interwebs, at one's leisure...
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Kyle, as I understand it
"the Monarch is the fount of all homours"
including, while a British monarch is also queen of ANZ, ONZ honours.
Not to mention re-introduced knighthoods...which is why I've never been interested in them.
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He probably didn't need a knighthood anyway, what with his beer baronetcy and all
Beer barony . A beer baronetcy would belong to a beer baronet, not a beer baron.
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You might want to check your facts on this one, Douglas Myers has never been Knighted.
You are however not along in making this mistake, it has been made many times over the years by the media.
I stand corrected, sir. He's a CBE, according to the Alumni of Auckland Uni. Doug Myers
I did check b4 I posted, TVNZ referred to him as Sir so i thought they *must* have got it right.
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beer baronet, not a beer baron
A very subtle insult, perhaps..
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This reminds me of the bit in Toby Young's book "How to lose friends and influence people" where he discovers that his father's life peerage allows him the courtesy title "Honourable". He then tries to get his Amex card amended to read "The Honourable Toby Young" in an attempt to pick up girls.
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Don't knighthoods all come from the crown via the GG, upon advice of the government?
Yes, currently.
How could parliament make someone a knight anyway? Takes a monarch to make a knight by definition surely?
While it would be unorthodox and would take a bit of getting used to, my preference is to require two-thirds of the House to vote in favour of legislation containing the names of those to be honoured, which would then be forwarded to the GG as Parliament's recommendations for honours, instead of the Government alone deciding and advising as it chooses.
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OK.
If there was a list of things that that government should require a 2/3 majority of parliament before they can do it, who gets a sword waved at them and a silly title would be well down my list.
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