Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1928 NEW ZEALAND’S STATESMEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 27 October 1928, Page 8

Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1928 NEW ZEALAND’S STATESMEN

AT the*present time, when the politicians are so prominently in evidence, it is interesting to consider what the best of them have done in the past, so that some idea may he arrived at as to what they may accomplish in the future. “The best of them” are statesmen, to whom the vest of the politicians stand in the relationship of instruments. The statesman is the man of vision who can guide his country safely through a crisis, as a sea-captain pilots his ship through a storm. To what extent has New Zealand been assisted by her statesmen; to what extent have they been successful in helping her through her times of difficult v?

The first statesman whom this country possessed was undoubtedly Sir George Grey. He quelled Heke's rebellion, and launched New Zealand on a straight course to prosperity. Ho initiated constitutional government by putting the Provincial form of government into operation. During his second term as

Governor of New Zealand he brought the Waikato war to a successful close, and reduced the King Movement to nothingness.- All these things, and things equally wonderful performed in Other colonies, won for Sir Goorg® Grey the title of the Groat Pro-consul. When he entered the political arena as an ordinary member of the Parliament which lie had done so much to create, lie was a failure, in spite of’ all his eloquence. Possibly lie had so long played the part of tho benevolent autocrat that lie found it impossible to act as a member, though the leading member, of a political team.

Sir Edward Stafford had the fortitude to “grasp the Maori nettle.” When, in 1060, it was evident that the Queen’s authority was challenged, and that the issue between Pakeha and Maori was which race should rule Now Zealand, Sir Edward Stafford did not hesitate to accept the challenge, strong in his confidence to carry the war through to a victorious end.

The next name in our line of statesmen is Sir Julius Vogel. The Maori wars being over, lie perceived, and rightly so, that what the country needed was development and population. The result was his famous Public Works and Immigration scheme, for which he proposed to borrow ten millions sterling. The country endorsed his proposals. Main trunk railways were to he built through both Islands. Much-needed workers were to be brought from England, under a system of assisted emigration. The plun sounded very attractive, when enunciated by Vogel. It looked well on paper, when printed in the country’s journals. But in practice it was hardly a success, for the politicians spoilt the plan for building main-trunk railways, by insisting on the construction of side-lines in their own individual districts, and the immigration scheme was largely spoilt by its being made the means for shipping out undesirables whom local authorities in England wero anxious to get rid of. That is the danger of such largo financial schemes being placed in the hands of Parliament—tho politicians scramble for the spoils. The failure of Vogel’s schemes rightly conceived though they were—should be a lesson to New Zealand.

The next politician who was gifted with political vision was John Ballance. His idea was to regenerate and revivify the country by means of semi-socialistic legislation which should harmoniso all classes in the task of forwarding the country’s development, and progress. He died almost as soon as lie had begun his self-appointed task, and his mantle fell on the broad shoulders of Richard Seddon. That extraordinary man addressed himself to the duty of putting into practice his late leader’s designs. He certainly made many indelible marks on the Statute Book, marks which are there today, and on which posterity will pronounce judgment. But this much may be said: Richard Seddon completely won the confidence of the country, and was never so popular as he was at the time he died, having remained Prime. Minister for a longer period than any of his predecessors, namely from May, 1893, to June, 1903. His ardent support of Britain in the Boer War was an example of his statesmanship. Sir Joseph Ward, who had long served as Seddon’s lieutenant, succeeded his leader. His principal claim to statesmanship was the offer of a battleship to Britain, at a time when it was plain that her mastery of the seas was challenged by Germany. The battle-cruiser New Zealand played a gallant and useful part in the Battle of the Bight, in the Dogger Bank fight, and in tho Battle of Jutland. New Zealand has reason to be proud of these achievements, and Sir Joseph Ward deserves every credit for his action in making them possible. William Massey’s claim to fame rests principally upon the . staunchness and firmness with which he supported Britain in the great emergency which faced her in 1914, when Germany sought to dominate Europe. Of course New Zealand was behind its Premier, but the fact that William Massey steadfastly led her along the straight and honourable path cf duty—duty to the Mother Land and to Civilisation—must always be acclaimed the act of a statesman.

Of course these, the most remarkable of our country’s political leaders, had their foibles, their weaknesses, their imperfections. Sir George Grey has been accredited with wilfulness and waywardness. Sir Julius Vogel was a gambler, so ’twas said, both in private life and in politics. In liis great political gamble of the ’seventies he certainly was the loser. Richard Seddon had an intolerant, overbearing manner in dealing with opponents, nay, in dealing with the rank-and-file of his party. It is generally considered Sir Joseph Ward’s seeming fondness for titles—for his friends as well as himself—did much to lose him the confidence of ' the democratic party, whose leadership he had inherited from Richard Seddon. To-day Sir Joseph has astonished the country and enlivened (lie election with his proposal to borrow seventy millions sterling, to be spent in promoting closer settlement, in promoting the farming industry, in placing large numbers of immigrants on the land, and completing the arterial system of railways. It is something like Sir Julius Vogel’s scheme, but seven times bigger. Opponents are justified in asking: What guarantee would there be that the politicians would not ruin Sir Joseph Ward’s scheme, just as they ruined Sir Julius Vogel’s fifty years ago? Would it be a wise thing to place the spending of seventy millions sterling—money not specifically ear-marked, though generally allocated—in the hands of politicians whose natural instinct is to promote, the interests of their own individual electorates, regardless of other considerations? Sir Joseph is nothing, if not spectacular. On one occasion, during his Premiership, lit* went to England to attend an Imperial Conference, or something of that sort, and unfolded to his astonished hearers a complete plan for instituting Imperial Federation. Today lie proposes that New Zealand should raise the Huge sum of seventy millions sterling for purposes, some of which, as sound critics have said, could be better served by private enterprise,

by natural growth of tho community, and by means of capital raised by individuals, on their merits, through the ordinary commercial sources of supply. Tliat part of Sir Joseph Ward’s scheme, which deals with the completion of main tr.unk lines of railway, is, as wo have said, a different matter, and is worthy of consideration. Even so, it would be necessary to ear-mark exactly the expenditure of the ten millions which ho proposes to raise, before giving Parliament tho handling of the money. For this district this would be a positively necessary precaution, without which she might be saddled with her share of the financial burden, without obtaining tho long-promised railway connection with tho South Island arterial route.