Four new ONZ Members

Four additional appointments have been made to the top ranked Order of New Zealand.

They are Sir Brian Lochore, C.K. Stead, Sir Paul Reeves, and Sir Owen Woodhouse.

While all four are, in my opinion, worthy additions to the Order, I do disapprove in principle of them being additional appointments to take it beyond that limit of 20. The reason it is the top honour is because it is restricted.

The answer is not to not appoint people like Sir Brian and C K Stead, but to have been more discriminating with some of the previous appointments like Geering and Hunt.

UPDATE: The Press Editorial agrees with me about the quality of some of the previous appointments, but they are less subtle labeling Hunt’s inclusion as “an exercise in effrontery and political cronyism”.