THE AWARUA SEAT.

Evening Star, Issue 10391, 12 August 1897, Page 2

THE AWARUA SEAT.

Speaking at Invercargill on Saturday, the Hon. J. G. Ward said : The recent election had been a remarkable one, inasmuoh as for a considerable period it had been the honest conviction of some of those opposed to him politically, and to the party that he supported, that they could, owing to circumstances over which he had no control, remove him from the political arena for a time at least. That determination, and the ! powerful influence in the Awarua electorate, I had, however, been defeated, and he did not believe it possible for them by petition or otherwise to now remove him from the seat he had gained. If thoy did suoceed they would find they could not buy the votes of the people of Awarua or swerve them from the man they wanted to serve them in Parliament. Supposing they were to succeed in taking the seat from him, Bpeaking with a know, ledge of human nature that people when they had made iip their minds to do a thing which they considered to the advantage of the colony's progress would pursue their purpose to the ond—he was confident they would again elect him, and with a majority not of 1,128 but of 1,558. Their motto was no surrender ; they did not know the meaning of the word surrender, and, personally, he.did not, and was at a loss how to conform to it when he was doing what was right—so long as he was actuated by a desire to carry out a polioy in public matters having for its objeot the improvement of the condition of the colony. . . . He had received a telegram from" the whole of his colleagues, through the Hon. John M'Kenzie, expressing their greatest satisfaction and conveying their kind wishes to the people of Awarua. There had also come to hand a most emphatic telegram from the Hon. Mr M'Kenzie congratulating him on his return, stating that the electors of Awarua had gained a splendid victory, and giving his assurance that he would stand by him so long as he remained in political life. Personally he bore no malice to his opponents ; it was not his disposition to hurt anyone. Occasionally when he had hit out under considerable provocation and given his opponents a lively hour and a-half of recrimination or retaliation he had never seen people wince so much. They said he was a dangerous man, but the fact of the matter was that he gave them one wholesale order in an hour and a-half,. and for two years afterwards they kept talking about it. It was difficult to say at that moment what course his opponents proposed to take against him next session so far as the seat was concerned, but whatever it might be, if thoy were indiscreet or foolish enough to endeavor to make the seat vacant —(A Voice : " We would put you in again"), and he did not think they could succeed, from the advice he had received, the people of Awarua would send him back. There had been united effort to remove him from the political arena, but the Awarua electors would not have it. Though we had had difficulties of our own to pass through, notwithstanding the attacks on the financial position of the Government, the financial standing of this country was sounder and stronger than it had been during the past fifteen or twenty years a fact the proof of which was to be found in the position of our stocks on the London money market. Instead of a depression we had a surplus so far as our TreaI sury was concerned. Some people had been I heard to ask how the colony's finances could be sound with a man liko Ward at the head lof affairs, but not one of those men who criticised them could put a finger on a single : thing wrong in connection with the finances I of the country during the last four or five i years, and he took that as a very great comI pliment indeed. When people attacked the colony's finances they should make specific | and not general charges, then they would be ! able to reply to them.