LAKE COUNTY COUNCILLORS 4 THE HON. MR WARD.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2170, 20 August 1897, Page 5

LAKE COUNTY COUNCILLORS 4 THE HON. MR WARD.

(TO THE EDITOR L.W.M.) Sir.—" If it is the pleasure of your County Council to re-elect me to the Bluff Harbor Board, I shall esteem the honor. Needless to ssy I should value the position, not only for its own sake, but for the purpose of showing the world that there are those who yet have confidence in me, and who in the hour of trial have uot deserted me." Such is the close of the Hon Mr Ward's private appeal to a representative of Lake County. Being paraphrased, it says : My chief object in asking to be re-elected to the Bluff Harbor Board is to show the world that, even as an uncertificated bankrupt, I have still enough influence to secure the votes of the County outside the sphere of my personal influence, and that too not by an appeal to the mob, but at the instance of an august body, elected (presumably tor their intelligence and integrity) by the mob. There is no record to show that any member of that august body, except Mr Stanford, objected to the presumption (contained in Mr Ward's letter) that their public vote could be influenced by a private person. Mr Stanford's reply is a credit to himself and to the ratepayers who elected him; but, at the same time, it showed Mr Ward the folly of trusting solely to his letter. If be wanted his testimonial a visit to Queenstown was necessary. He came, saw and conquered. Opportunities were freely given to councillors to hobnob with greatness in the person of Mr Ward. His position as an apparent member of the House of Representatives was freely used ; anything and everything was freely promised. Members were waylaid, and Mr Ward boasted, to at least some of them, that he had called one of their colli agues a " cad " for presumiog to stand by his convictions. The moral aspect of the whole affair appears to have been above the comprehension of the members, and Mr Ward got his testimonial with only two dissentients and a half-hearted reluctance on the part of the weak-kneed chairman to record his vote. But Mr Stanford might publish the correspondence that passed between himself and Mr Ward, and it might somewhat marr the value of the testimonial so easily acquired. Hence, Mr Editor, the attempt to mnzzle the press as noted io your issue of 13th inst; that too in the face of Mr Ward's express desire to have the correspondence published; and after Mr Ward had privately asked the member for Shotover to move at the Council table " That the Ward-Stanford letters be read." The great pity is that Mr Stanford judges it is no longer consistent with his dignity to sit with nis late colleagues ; but it is a greater pity that there is little immediate danger of the Council losing the services of any of the said colleagues. Truth.