RELIGION IN POLITICS.

Evening Star, Issue 12872, 23 July 1906, Page 6

RELIGION IN POLITICS.

—« In the course of a lengthy letter in the 'Lyttelton Times' of Saturday, ,f Liberal" says: Sir Joseph Ward came to tliis colony as a baby. He grew up and went through an ordeal which would lull most men. Ho was at the head of a concern in Invercargill whose turnover was £1,000,000 a year, according to sworn testimony. Through the machinations ot a political conspiracy that concern was put into liquidation, and ho was financially ruined. ' It can 1» proved now that that concern would have paid 20s in the £ if allowed to go on, but it was forced into liquidation with the view of ruining Sir Joseph Ward politically. He went through it all bravely and manfully, aye. heroically. He came out of that concern without a halfpenny. He had nothing laid aside for the rainy day; he had no part of his) property made over to his wife, which, I think, is sufficient proof of his honesty, but he gave still further proof of it. He had- friends who backed him np, and enabled him to buy back some of his own property which was sold recklessly, and he very soon became wealthy again, and paid all his debts. Mr Cook, while liquidating tlio Ward Farmers' estate, incurred a debt of £4OO, and neglected to pay it. Sir J. G. Ward was not morally or legally hound to pay this, as the debt was contracted by Mr Cook, but lie paid it. My authority is Mr A. Lee-Smith, of Dunedin. ' In all this I see nothing but convincing evidence of the nobility of Sir J. G. Ward's character. Because he was regarded as one of the ablest men in the Ministry be was cruelly persecuted. He bore it all nobly ; he came out of it clean-handed, and paid all his creditors 20s in the £, though not legally bound to do so. As regards his religion, his wife is a Pro- ■ testant, one of his private secretaries is a Presbyterian and a Prohibitionist, another a Church of England man ; the managers of his private business in Dunedin and Invercargill aro Protestants; aud thus those nearest his own person are of a different religious belief. Ido not think that Sir Joseph Ward ever gave religion one moment's thought in the matter of giving employment, and it is my firm conviction that no man of superior mental capacity ever doc? so. Thank God men with capable brains in their heads never do it!

We have had in this colony already a* Jew as Premier, also a Freethinker, and nothing was said about them. We had, too, a Catholic in the person of Sir Frederick Weld, and ho made his name memorable as the author of the policy of self-re-liance. The Premier of Canada is a Catholic, and he is at present the first colonist of the Empire. The Marquis of Ripon. who was Governor-General of India, was a Catholic ; the Du&e of Norfolk,. late PostmasterGeneral of England, is a Caiholic; Lord Russell of Killowen, late Chief Justice of England, was a Cutholic; and there are hundreds of other Catholics employed aT over the world as governors and ambassadors, and all of them have proved faithful, loyal, and true. Shall it be said that we, boasting as we do of being in advance of aU other. countries, shall deprive the State of the services of its, most capable and best politician liecause of' his religious belief? If so. God,help the State that is dependent on men and women who m the twentieth century could do that. But sach a thing is hnpossibie. The noise is mado by a few thoughtless cranks. Those wim say that Sr J- G. Waid ia 1 antagonistic to the workers had better ask the railway men and the post and telegraph officials what they think, and those who dread that he wall be extravagant would, in aD probability, by making inquiries in the right place, find that be -was tie check rein on expenditure in the past, i