SIR JOSEPH WARD HONOURED.

Evening Star, Issue 20130, 21 March 1929, Page 10

SIR JOSEPH WARD HONOURED.

The banquet to tho Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, which was attended by 2,000 admirers in Invercargill last evening, was a unique tribute to a unique career, so far as New Zealand politics are concerned. One might have to think long to find in tho annals ot any country a parallel to the triumphant return to the first place in national affairs which maiked New Zealand’s confidence in Sir Joseph after the long years that ho had been out of office. It was sixteen years since he had been '.e Minister, and nine since he had been a Minister, when ho was called last year to tho leadership of tho United Party For some years ho had been out of the House. In the years immediately preceding the new call to him he was not even Leader of the Opposition. He preferred to be a party of one, waging no political warfare, but benefiting tho House whenever ho spoke by virtue of his rare experience. He did not seek the leadership of tho new party which was formed with what seemed to most the almost hopeless mission of restoring the vanished glories of Liberalism —vanished, to all appearances, beyond recall. At the eleventh hour he was persuaded to accept it, and at once Now Zealand politics took on a new orientation. New hopes were born with the new leader; and before bis old position of Prime Minister was resumed by him bis journeys throughout the dominion had become triumphal progresses. Only one New Zealander who still lives has had a career in politics which began earlier than his, and that of Sir Robert Stout, which began twelve years earlier, is no longer active. No member of our present Parliament has served nearly so long. The urbanity and the qualities that make for popularity of Sir Joseph Ward have been as outstanding as his courage and' his financial acumen. It was the people of his homo province of Southland who chiefly uonoured him last evening, but half tho members of the Cabinet were present, and, ardent as was the appreciation . which marked the gathering, wc have no doubt that it might have been held with the same enthusiasm in any of the other provinces of the dominion. There was no sign of years or weariness iu the address delivered by Sir Joseph Ward. It was a firmly constructed address, dealing in detail witli many phases of the dominion’s activities, as well as with tho political programme which it is hoped will give a new impetus to its development, as tho policy of Sir Joseph and his great leader, the late Mr Seddon, did years before. The old optimism was unabated m it. There was only one forecast which was something less than cheerful, and that was that the Financial Statement may not quite balance for the year throe parts of which were under the control of Sir Joseph’s predecessor. lb was a very small surplus —£26o,ooo —for which Mr Downio Stewart budgeted. He had foreseen that the revenue probably would not show any increasing buoyancy, unemployment was still a charge, and the surplus for the preceding year had not been more than £IBO,OOO. It is too soon Lo say yet with certainty, but Sir Joseph thinks that the estimate for this year will not quite be reached. He has every confidence, however, that he will be able to redress the position satisfactorily during the forthcoming financial year. By this time the new Government's investigations will have shown it where expenditure of some of the big departments can be reduced without the slightest sacrifice of efficiency, and in that direction, as well as iu tlio outlook for more general prosperity, lies the outlook for no further difficulty with Budgets.