"RIGHT TO SPEAK"

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 68, 21 March 1914, Page 2

"RIGHT TO SPEAK"

ADDRESS BY SIR JOSEPH

WARD.

LIBERALS? ASPIRATIONS

"If j'ou felt .as-well as I do, you would be ready to take a.part in i annihilating those who represent a ; minority •in ■ this country,'' said Sir 1 Joseph Ward, in commencing, an adr dress to the Women's Social and Poli- | tical League in Wellington on Wednes- ! day night. "Aft all events, we.intend ! to try," 'he added amid applause. Continuing, Sir Joseph Ward said he believed, in freedom of speech, and he thought that every man in New Zealand who -wanted to address an audience in any part of the Dominion had a right to be heard, and ought to be heard. He wanted, on behalf of the people of New Zealand,-to ask | for freedom of speech—for (the men opposed to him as well as for the men who supported him—and he said that recognising that the people opposed to. him were at the present moment earning the reward of their efforts to restrict freedom of speech. Bid ithey, he asked, remember what took place on the eve of his departure tor the Old Country a few . years ago, when he was to represent all shades of public opinion in the Dominion? Under one of the leading Reformers ' some of v the people marched on Parliament Buildings for the purpose of making ,an attack on him and discrediting h|m in politics. That step was supported by. some distinguished ."Reformers," who were now howling out against; the attack now being made •upon them!. On more than one occasion he (Sir Joseph Ward) had said that what was being done to him then would be done to them larter, and in this connection he referred to what took place in Parliament last session, when freedom of speech was taliien away from members of the House of Representatives by the Speaker and the Ohairman of Committees to a degree never previously known in any civilised community.. WHO'S WHO? New Zealand had ito .ascertain in no indefinite way which' party is ,in the ascendency. If the other side Avon, well and good, but he pointed out that:in; a-long series of enactments that had been put on the Statute Book during (the last twentyone years there were many measures for the social : regeneration .of the people, for the assistance pf the' weak, for the assistance of women, for the help of the worker, for the help of the farmer, for the help of the. poor ; and they had all been pi^t on during the period of office of the Liberal Administration. EASY FINANCE. ■ The Prime Minister told a Nelson audience that any settler there could finance this, country better, than his opponents had done. He thought the Prime Minister must have been in a 'humorous- mood when he suggested that the financing of a great country like New Zealand was an easy matter. It was misleading j the people to-talk in such, a way. The financial position of New Zealand was strong; it had I been so for (twenty years. The- assets ' of the country were hundreds of mil- j lions above its indebtedness and its j liabilities, and .he went on to depre- i cate any attempt on "the part of any j party' to decry .our financial Stability, i As to (the last loan, he said the Government iiook crediit.for the fact that' it was subscribed^four-fold, but said.! nothing about Vthe fact that at the ! same time .a ■■Russian' ib&nu was v sub- j scribed Re;ye^ty-Wb-fold.--',:.\He''^id;'-n'pfi; suppose the New Zealand Prime" Minister would, take; any qredit 'to himself for. that. He also contended that in carrying out.loan conversions the safest plan, which had been followed out by the Liberal Administration , ■ waf^o :carry out the transactions, in .secret, because' by that method better results would ace'rue. CAMPAIGN JUSTIFIED. "Can you," he asked, "take any exception to,myself and other!mempersof the Liberal party speaking to the' people of New Zealand in different pauts at the pi'esent moment? ' You must remember that about. 80 per cent, of the press of this country is on the "other side. I think; they are on the worst side." Most of the writers had, lie declared; to write,jbo order on 'behalf of the proprietors. • One took no exception to their doing'that, but he believed- that the majority of the readers of those papers were Liberal at heart, ithat they were on the side" ol the people; and he believed that the cause of the Liberal, party would achieve success at the next eleotion. SANE PROGRESS. ;

Those associated with him in the Liberal ranks in Parliament, and outside Parliament, the workers who believed in sane progress, did not expect the Liberal party to do impossibilities. He doubted very much whether the extreme section in New-Zealand would ever find a, party that would go: as far as they desired,' but- if the pebple wanted a party prepared, to legislate for (the masses, .and do. its best for all classes, and to see that-the country was ruled constitutionally, he was prepared'to say on behalf of the Liberal party that they were prepared to fight the coming contest fairly, strong■ly, and determinedly, believing, as they did, that they were fighting in the general interests of the people on lines best calculated to promote the welfare of ithe country and the happiness and contentedness of the people. Sir Joseph. Ward concluded his address amid loud applause, and those present sang "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow."