TO THE PEOPLE. FAREWELL MESSAGE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 76, 29 March 1912, Page 3

TO THE PEOPLE. FAREWELL MESSAGE.

FROM SIR JOSEPH WARD. At a late hour last night Sir Joseph Ward addressed the following message to the, people of the Dominion on his retirement from office :—: — "fellow-citizens, — To-day I lay down the duties and burden of the leadership of the Liberal Party. I assumed it nearly six years ago, not .without many misgivings that I could not maintain that unrivalled public record which the late Mr. Seddon closed by death in tireless devotion to the land and people he loved so well. As a statesman and a leader he left behind him no equal; hence it was inevitable that I should suffer as his successor by contrasts; and comparisons which showed his superiority. " Whatever may be thej world's measure, a man's measure of his own achievements turns mainly upon whether he has done his best; and whatever my shortcomings have been, I feel that I cannot unfairly claim to have used such abilities as I possess as well as I could, and as industriously as I could, in the service of this country, and in the promotion ,of what I conceived to be the best interests of the great mass of my fellowcountrymen. " It is a quarter of a century since I was elected a member of Parliament, and I became a Minister of the Crown over twenty -one years ago. I recognise that it is given to but few men to hold Ministerial office for so long a time, and while I have never, where justice and the general welfare of the people demanded it, hesitated to limit or resist sectional or class interests, I have (as is always the case) created class enemies without always securing a corresponding support of the great mass of/the community for whose welfare I was striving. "The most disheartening experience of leadership is that, while the classes of privilege and monopoly fiercely, and often effectively, attack a man for all invasions of their interests in tho cause of the common weal, the great bulk of the people he is seeking to Benefit not infrequently legard his efforts with apathy and indifference. "And bo to-day, on taking leave of leadership, and of ul! prospect of other Ministerial office, I am fully justified iv saying that what has incited against me the bitterness, misrepresentation, and abuse poured upon me so overwhelmingly at the lusfc electiou, was mainly the uncompromising attitude I have always taktn towards the foices of Conservatism, Monopoly, and Privilege, when and where 1 have honestly felt it was my duty to do so in the public interest. " No man who traces the long series of legislative measures which began with Mr. Ballance, which weie continued vigorously by the late Mr. Seddon. and which the Government of which I hud the honour to be leader has passed, can deny that the whole trend and purpose of these measures has been on the side, of tho people, for the benefit of the people, and for the protection of the people against the possible oppression of the great vested iutere&ts. Men of middle life have poor memories indeed if they cannot recall the bitter resistance, both in the Press and Parliament, which the members of the Opposition Party offered to most, of these beneficent reforms. "On leaving the leadership to-day 1 feel a, sense of pardonable pride iti a survey of the Statute Book for the last fivp years, and that sense of pride is heightened by a wider survey of the measures I have helped to make la.w during all the previous years I was ai member of the Ballance and Seddon Cabinets. Amid the tumult of recent and present party conflict, a. man'i past public work is not unnaturally forgotten, but 1 believe that when the people of New Zealand later pasb judgment upon what 1 have done, and earnestly sought to do, and make up the account for and against me, ' nothing extenuate nor au^ht set down in malice,' they will admit that jny years oi office have not been spent unworthily, and tha.t I have left behiud me in the shape of administrative acts and legislative reforms a lasting answer to the calumny which has* for so many months past been directed against me in an ever-increasing chorus by many of those opposed to me. Those who know me best will at least admit that I have-not spared myself in doing the work of my public offices-. I am now past middle life, and from years of early youth until to-day my life has been one of strenuous labour. The best years of thio life have been given to my country. Hence it in that_ I accept with great cheerfulness the retirement which circumstances have forced upon me. My prospective leisure comes to me the more gratefully iv that I am no willing d^sarter from my post in the field. To me, whatever my" bitter critics rna,y say. my party's interests aio dealer than any personal advantage, and while I Khali no longer have tho ipowers and privileges of leadership, Ibha,ll strive a& a private member to assist in the fullest degree the party to which I havo so long belonged, and which' for over' five years I have 3ec', in all attempts tliai party ■may make to further the interests of the people of this country along the lilies of safe humanitarian progress. -" Xv-day, I leavg Icjderegg and office

with no sense of bitterness or resentment, aad a& a. private member 1 shall continue to feel the same loy*> for this beautiful country — the same intense interest in its progress, as I have always felt throughout the years of my Ministerial life.. My late leader went out of office into the silence of death, the heroic victim of his own public devotion, ending that strenuous life of his as he himself would perhaps have cho&en. My exit is different, but were Ik- living and in retirement, I am dispospd to- fee) that he to-day would have shaken me by the hand and cheered me witli the assurance that looking at my work I had not been unworthy to succeed him; and I am gratified by the belief {hat thor-e of my fellow-countrymen who read tin's message with fair, impartial minds will pa*& upon my years of leadership an equally generous judgment. " (Sg.) JOSEPH GEORGE WARD. " " Wellington, 28th March."