The Liberal Leader.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17612, 15 November 1922, Page 8

The Liberal Leader.

Sir Joseph Ward would be less, or more, than human if he did not find pleasant the eulogies of his friends, but he must feel embarrassed and annoyed when they as Dr. Thacker and a local Liberal paper occasionally do, that he is the greatest of all living statesmen. But we should say that this little annoyance will be balanced by the sardonic enjoyment with which he will have read Mr Wilford's noble eulogy of him. Prior to Monday evening Mr Wilford was so pointedly ignoring Sir Joseph's existence, and so ostentatiously omitting him from the list of \the leaders of the* "grand old Liberal Party" beginning with Sir George Grey and ending with Mr Wilford himself, that people had begun to talk about it. Towards the end, of last week, he was addressing a meeting in the Auckland province, and was, as usual, treating Sir Joseph Ward as non-existent. "The "Liberal Party," he said; "stood for "the 1 old flag, planted by fir George " Grey, carried on by Ballance and Sed"don, and held, perhaps feebly, by him"self." Here was a deliberate exclusion of Sir Joseph from the list, and it set one of the audience thinking, with the result that Mr Wilford was asked why the Liberal Party was silent when there was talk of Sir Joseph contesting a seat. This dialogue ensued: The Questioner: I ask Mr Wilford to answer the) question. Mr Wilford: We do not shriek if he wants to stand. If he want© to stand, he stands.

The Questioner: Why was the Liberal Party silentP "■'»'' Mr Wilford: A man has a right to stand if he wants to. We do not shriek if he wants to stand.

Mr Wilford,: ':'; thai is to say, wished to. treat Sir Joseph as •merely ,"* . man ' who wants to "stand." Hid petulant tone quite ael clearly as his omission of all reference to Sir Joseph m his histories of the Party; that'Mr Wilford was dreading •" Sif Joseph's reappearance in politics, since it would necessarily mean his own retirement from the leadership. On Monday afternoon Sir Joseph declared definitely that he was not reentering politics, and on Monday evening, freed from the fear that was haunting him, Mr Wilford burst into a splen- ; did eulogy of him. Thererwas no longer any reason why., he should withhold his praise. Sir Joseph, being no longer a potential rival, was a jolly good fellow, and all the rest of it. Everyone will know that if Sir Joseph had decided to ctand Mr Wilford's eulogy would have remained unspoken, and nobody will know this better than Sir Joseph himself. . To Reformers the leadership of the liberal Party is of little jnoment, but most people will be apt to conclude that there is not much value in a party whose leadership can fall into the hands o? a politician so notably wanting in magnanimity as Mr Wilford.