POLITICAL PORTRAITS.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8867, 9 August 1894, Page 5

POLITICAL PORTRAITS.

SECOND SEkIES-1894.

By « r PHiz.". Bm. WARD. Colonial Tbsasu&zr and Vabious Tiuhgs, "Getmoney; Btiiigetmoaey, boy; > o m&teer by witac mtsau. —JoSsos. . Different Ministers have brought to the I existing Ministry, divers gifts—or at least the reputation of possessing them. The Premier, for instance, dowers his party with a voice—l will not add, "A. voice and nothing mere." The Hon. "Jock" McKenzie brings to the common fund of Ministerial wit and wisdom burliness and one of the finest barn excanfc beneath the Southern Cross. Mr Carroll, without hyperbole, is, when permitted to speak, the only oracor in the crowd. Mr Cadman's contribution is a spacious silence. Mr Reeves, of course, supplies amiability and Chesterfieldian polish ; but. Mr Ward alone brings beauty and elegance of face, form and costume , to" a Cabinet which, save for him, would hardly be in a position to exhibit with any success at a Beauty Show.

While fully concediug the comeliness and general " gentility "—-if I may use the expression—of the present Hon. Colonial Treasurer, I may perhaps be forgiven for venturing to doubt whetner loveliness and grace alone constitute a great financier. There ,is no elegance about the multiplication table ; ib is a common, dull, sordid arrangement, and yet there is reason to believe that it sways . finance more , than ali the nice clothes and curly heads in the universe. People with no hirsute adornments to apeak of, aud with hooked noses* cavernous mouthe, and clothes of the moet aeedy order, have been known to possess wealta beyond the wildcat dreams of* avarice. I once had pointed out to mo a financier at whose nod Jiiuga and Emperors trembled, and who was credited with having tLe power to set Europe in a blaze, should such conflagration at auy moment chance to suit his financial operations. Aud yet this Goliath of the money bags wore a shabby coat which fitted him as a purser's shirt fits a handspike. **♦ ' * This perhaps brings us to the greater question — What; constitutes a clever financier ? It was Dumas the younger, I think, who, answering the question *• What is busi- ! ness V replied, "Jt is easily explained; it is other people's money." The inference, of course, is that business naturally and properly involves the getting as much as possible ipf other person's money, without giving any quid pro giix>. This, like most definitions, in a half-truth only. If it were wholly true, then the biggest sharper would be the best busiueaa man. Yet, even in ordinary commercial transactions, sharp practice, though sometimes' temporarily successful, far more freq uentiy defeats than gains its own cads. I take it taeu that, as v rule, honesty should be one cf the characteristicsof a business man who is also a tiuanoier. And if this applies to those who finance with their own money, or with such credit as is given to them personally, how much more does it apply to those, who finance purely with the money of others; and with what tenfold force to those who finance with the effects of a country, a State, or nation 1 The mere commercial man finances too wildly; i.e., he speculates; and possibly fails. He ",comes a cropper " and perhaps involves a few others iv bis fall. But the man who undertakes to finance a country and fails, brings « whole down with him. Therefore the definition of Damag fils does not and ebould noc apply to national businees or duance, whicu must jtiot only be carried but with strictest nouesty, but with the greatest ekiil uud capacity. Honesty and nothing else will never equip a man for mere business pursuits; how muobi leas will it fit him to finance a country 1 A Colonial Treasurer should be a trained financier in the highest eeiwe not merely should possess Ample, knowledge : of the world and wide of men and manners.. And, in a colony of this sort, where the public accounts are kept (or not kept) iv the moat, complicated and idiotic manner conceivable, it is absolutely necessary that he should be a man of acjtaal practical experience—mast.cc of the smallest details as well ai of the largest generaliues.

This exordium ia perhaps of the longest. But how does the Hon. J. 6. Ward fill this bill ? Hia political hcnesty we muat assume as beyond doubt. Has he any other equipment for the task he has complacently undertaken I Let us see. ■•■•• • .#■■■ * * « Mr Ward, born in Victoria in 1857, is now in his 37th year. He arrived ia tab colony tfhen he was a child, and, I believe I am correbt in saying,* was educated exclu-. aively here, and has never been out of the colony, save on short visits to Australia. He rose, and this,of course, is greatly to his credit as a man, from extremely humble beginnings. But Uie fact does not necessarily prove that he in a tin j.ueier. He has conducted, with a fair amount of success, as far as I am aware, commercial operations' in Southland for some years. Bub that is no proof that he is even a commercial financier—many successful business men being utterly ignoraut of , the ramifications of commercial fiuance. And, supposing he has some knowledge of business finance, it by no means fol> i lows that he has any acquaintance with national finance, a widely I different and vastly more difficult branch of the subject. Mr Ward has, with more or leas success (Colonel Fox apparently thought #ith less), occupied a quite exalted position in a Southern. Naval Volunteer corpa. Grateful as the circumstance that Mr Ward has had experience with skyrockets and torpedoes may be-to the patriotic mind, that circumstance by no means necesfarily involves Mr Ward's expartness as a Colonial Treasurer. At tne same time, he undoubtedly touches off a Financial Statement ac lightly and airily as if the public purse was a sky-rocket, ft is to be hoped that the Statement in question may not prove as destructive as the torpedoes with which Mr Ward has been in the habit ot dealing. Mr Ward has had Bft\en years Parliamentary experiencebeing first elected in 1887. He has certainly from that date until to-day evinced no marked political talent of any sort, except perhaps eraavity. And yet, at the present moment, he is the Pooh Bah of Maorilandl

It i> thus negatively apparent that Sir Ward has no quauncsuons eminently suiting him for the position of Colonial Treasurer. His late Financial Statement mofit unmistakably'shows that, whatever the honesty of hia intentions, he has neither the necessary ability, the experience, nor any special gifts for the office he holds. The Statement is wild cat from the crown of its bald head to the fiolea of its cloven feet. It is an "After-us-the-Deluge" Statement—a Statement prepared to placate those who have neither the knowledge nor the power to-analyse it, and those whose financial motlo is " Let to-morrow take care of itself. ,. In ite •• nashne&s "it ia akin to the finance of those "Smart" business men who say of a venture what the traditional old woman said of her cow—" If it lives, it lives; if it dim, it dies!" $ir Ward has, he aays, a surplus -which may, ia the words i of Virgil, be described Aβ—" An unknown! weightof gold and silver. ,. If, however, he ' were placed upon oath teaching the loca- , tion, it is gravely to be doubted if he knows , where the gold and silver are, though he may be certain the weight is unknown. Abo, Mr Ward is impressed to the verge of joyful tears with the usual" unexampled prosperity of the country.* . This, as will be noticed, does not, prevent* him from putting a Chinese "squeeze , * upon those unfortunate enough to own land. , The truth is, Mr Ward's policy (save the. mark!) as a Colonial Treasurer is accurately summed np in the words of Jouson which head these lines. And tne fault, as the object of this sketch has. been to' show, is not so much Mr Ward's as those who placed him in his present political position, simply because he was a well-mannered, smooth-spoken young man, with some provincial knowledge of hides, wool in the grease, and- Austrian bent-wood chairs.

• ■■•*■■ « ■-■■-■ * It only remain* to aay that yi person Mr Ward is very presentable and nfeber youthful ieekiae, a* i* gesiai tsd petit* lo

manner, vtith some recent tendency to a feeble sort; of ttarcatm, the result probably of evil Ministerial communications which have slightly corrupted his good manners. He his in hand a large stock of feelf-poaseftston; speaks quietly, easily and by no means unpleasantly, and has, generally speaking, tbe aplomb, superficial read!. n*ss of resource and seli-oommand one etpects to encounter in a business man in a tnoderats way of business. Personally he is, perhaps, more jpoptil&r than' any of his colleagues, if we except Mr Carroll, who, I presume, may be considered to hold that position.