SIR JOSEPH WARD IN THE SOUTH

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 51, 23 November 1917, Page 6

SIR JOSEPH WARD IN THE SOUTH

CONDITIONS AFCER THE WAR. By Telegraph—Press Association. Invercargill, November 22. Sir Joseph Ward spent a busy day at Invercargill to-day. He received a dozen deputations during the afternoon and in the evening was the guest at a complimentary dinner of the Joint Electric Power Committee of the Borough Council .and the Southland League. It was a most representative gathering, nearly two hundred being present and every local body in Southland being represented. The Mayor of Invercargill presided. In responding to the toast of his health, Sir Joseph Ward said he had for fifteen years past been convinced of the need for harnossing up tho rivers and lakes of New Zealand for generating electricity, and he had been responsible for placing legislation on tho Statute-book in 1910 and tlio Lake Coleridge scheme as the result had been a great success. The time would coma when the whole of the railways system of the country would be run entirely by electricity. We had water forces far greater than any other country. Sir Joseph Ward remarked that conditions 'would be very different when the war was over, and he warned farmers that within eix months after peace was declared there would be a big drop in the price obtained for their products. It was necessary for us to realise what our position would be in this respect. New Zealand would bo governed by the London markets, and the people in England would not be able to pay the prices now ruling. People on tlife'land would have to bo financially helped, and returned soldiers would have to be put on the land. Ho made a prophecy that money would not be dear after the war was over. The cost of living was a difficult problem; it was largely contributed to by high freights, insurances, and other charges for everything we imported, while labour was scarce for tho things we produced, and it had to bo remembered that our prosperity depended upon our exports. He would hang any food exploiter.