MR WARD'S VISIT TO ENGLAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1217, 28 June 1895, Page 37

MR WARD'S VISIT TO ENGLAND.

From Our Special Correspondent. London, May 18.

The next time one of your Premiers or Colonial Treasurers talk of visiting the Old Country there will, it is to be hoped, be none of the ill-conditioned sneering and grumbling which preceded the Hon J. G. Ward's departure. By now it must be tolerably apparent even to the most prejudiced opponents of the Government that the Treasurer's visit has, from first to last, been a huge success. Not that one for a moment expects these good people to admit the fact. Had the',three per cent, loan been a failure, we should have been told that the criminal audacity and financial maladroitness of the Treasurer were entirely responsible for the fiasco. As it has on the other hand panned out phenomenally well, we shall be, indeed are, told the triumph is entirely due to the present plethora of money for investment, and that even had Mr Ward been 14,000 miles away the result would have been exactly the same. Well, I can assure you, Sir Westby Perceval doesn't think thus. That he could have brought out the loan successfully, even without Mr Ward behind him, no one doubts, but that his hands were enormously strengthened by the presence and assistance of the Treasurer, and that the latter's speech to the city magnates at the Chamber of Commerce materially contributed to the astonishing result of the subscription the Agent - General would be the first to admit.

That this is the view of the situation j taken in the city the press comments j abundantly prove. Almost the first scrap j I take up fiom over 100 cuttings singing j the same congratulatory song, says : { " New Zealand has beaten the record, but j this we think is more due to the work put ; in by Mr Ward, the Colonial Treasurer, ] who is now 'on tour' in this country, j than to the actual condition of the Colony, j which is by no means all that could be desired." This remark' comes from the World's financial man, and has been repeated again and again in various forms. Both the distinguished visitor and Sir Westby are being overwhelmed with congratulations. Nothing succeeds like success, and as the Times observes, "A more brilliant one has never been known in the history of Australasian loans.'* ' INSCRIPTION OF STOCK. Though the scheme for transferring the •inscription of stock to the Bank of New Zealand at an enormously reduced cost has, owing to legal difficulties, fallen through, and the Agent-General and Mr Ward have had to be temporarily contented (or rather discontented) with the stingy concession of the Bank of England, New "Zealanders should bear in mind that through the Treasurer's visit the whole question has been opened up, and Sir W. Perceval's hands materially strengthened. Depend upon it Mr Ward will not be back long in the Colony before he and Mr Seddon are putting their heads together to meet the legal difficulties in the way of (the great economy which can be effected in this financial process. NEW ZEALAND LADIES AT THE DBA WINGBOOM. Though New Zealand ladies are not often discoverable amongst the throngs of blue-blooded dames who flock annually to the Court of St. James to pay their respects to our gracious Sovereign, it is generally conceded that when they do come they are a credit to that distant dependency. Miss Buller was, if I remember aright, the last debutante from Maoriland, and all who were privileged to join her j Drawing-room Tea afterwards will remem- | ber how charming she looked. On Wednes- i day, the Bth, there were quite a number of i Australasian presentations, but the palm for I beauty was unanimously awarded to Mrs J.. G.Ward. Curiously enough, too, she was only | one of several attractive ladies of the same name at this function. Georgina, Countess \ of Dudley (who is of course the head of j f/ie Ward family), and still one of the 1 handsomest women in England, was attending. She wore a gown of gleaming ! white satin velvet and brocade, specially j designed to set off her tiara, Riviere necklace, bracelets and stomacher of incomparable emeralds, an historic collection of fabulous value. Mrs Humphrey Ward, the famous Tasmanian novelist, was also presented at this Drawing-room, and in her turn presented her daughter Dorothy. The latter wore a corsage petticoat of white duchesse satin; train of white ribbon broche, lined with eau de nil satin merveilleux, corsage trimmed with pearl galon and clusters of honeysuckle tied with quaint bows of eau de nil satin; head-dress, plume and veil; ornaments, pearls. The author of " Robert Elsmere" appeared in a corsage and petticoat of satin j Marie Antionette in a delicate shade of jeune pousse; train of rich black Lyons I velvet lined with daffodil satin duchesse ; j corsage trimmed with black embroidered j lace with a seine of pansies in front of corsage. Head-dress, plume and veil ; orna- | inents, sapphires and diamonds. IjADT ONSLOW AND MRS J. G. WARD. None of the wives of the A gents-General were present, nor was this at all remarkable. Whilst the representatives of the Colony are refused the entree (a privilege accorded the legations of every trumpery South American Republic) it is too much to expect their ladies to go to Court frequently. Lady Onslow and Lady Jersey (the latter with her daughters), who were to the fore on Wednesday, had, of course, the benefit of this great convenience, which besides ensuring reception by Her Majesty (who never takes the general company nowa- | days) does away with half the waiting and I weariness of going to Court. Lady Onslow wore a lovely gown of antique brocade in a design of large bows. The bodice was covered with lace, and trimmed with a knot of chartreuse-green chiffon on one shoulder, a long trail of orchids falling

from the other over the train of rich brocade lined with green. The ornaments were a tiara and stomacher of diamonds, and a bouquet of choice orchids. MRS WARD'S DRESS. Mrs Ward's gown, which was designed and carried out by Madame Rosalie Wade, the fashionable Court dressmaker, of 22, Buckingham Palace road, will doubtless be seen in a modified form and minus the train at some New Zealand balls. It consisted of an under-dress of rich rose pink satin duchesse; the skirt, with fans of chiffon let in at the hem, fastened with bunches of roses, the seams outlined with trails of rosebuds and fine foliage. The bodice was cut square and draped with clouds of pink chiffon, in which were arranged bunches of roses, with trails and fringe of rosebuds on one side, and bows of ribbon and long ends reaching to the hem of the skirt on the other. The court train, fastened from each shoulder, was of rich forget-me-not blue brocaded satin, bearing a design of guelder roses in pink with foliage and tinted leaves, the whole shot with gleams of gold colour, the effect being most artistic and uncommon. The train was lined with a bright shade of serpent green satin, and trimmed with fine point de gaze caught up with groups of roses and bows of pink and blue. Headdress, plume and veil. Ornaments, pearls and diamonds. Bouquet, a posy of roses. This dress sounds a good deal brighter in colour than it in effect looked. The masculine critics at Mrs Ward's Drawingroom Tea pronounced the effect delightful. Unquestionably the toilette was, from an artistic point of view, entirely successful and most becoming. Naturally, Mrs Ward was terribly tired. Buckingham Palace is within five minutes' walk of the West Palace Hotel, yet it took the New Zealand lady from 11.30 a.m. till 4.45 p.m. to get there and back again.

However, once this dreaded ordeal with

its culminating trial of the swimming curtsey to the representative of the Sovereign, and the cruelly difficult backward waddle have been successfully negotiated, every woman is glad to have been to Court. A DRAWING-iIOOM TEA. Mrs Ward fulfilled the inevitable programme by being photoed in Drawing-room attire by the Italian nobleman whose trade name is Van der Weyde, and on Wednesday evening was at home from 5 to 7 to her friends at the Westminster Palace Hotel. Amongst the eighty odd guests who looked in during that period were : —Sir George Grey, Lord and Lady Onslow, Sir Julius and Lady Vogel, Sir Charles and Lady Tupper, Lady Hillingdon, Mr and Mrs Henniker Heaton, Mr Moberly Bell (manager of the Times) and Mrs Bell, Sir W. and Lady Perceval, Mr and Mrs J as. Huddart, Mr and Mrs Siemens, Mrs Ballance, Sir Charles and Lady Dilke, Mr and Charles Pharazyn, Mr and Mrs George Beetham, Miss Coates, Mr and Mrs Owen Jones, Mr and Mrs Martin, Mr and Mrs Charles Rous-Marten, Mr and Mrs Nation, Sir James and Lady Garrick, Mr A. S. Rathbone, Mr and Mrs Balme, &c, &c. THE WARD BANQUET. The Ward dinner takes place at the Holborn Restaurant next Tuesday, and it will not surprise me if directly it is over your Treasurer cuts and runs. Both Mrs Ward and he are heartily tired of the rush of London life at high pressure, and longing for rest and quiet. Mr Ward says he will have a week to himself before he sails, and if he means this he must leave town on the 22nd.

Sir Edwyn Dawes presides at the dinner. Lord Onslow would have liked to, but he had a long arranged Masonic banquet to attend on that date, and as he had fixed the day Limself, it was impossible to beg off.

MONISINO THE WARDS. The Hon J. G. and Mrs Ward bring good constitutions to bear on the labour of being " lionised," otherwise they would have found this last fortnight a bit trying. Commencing from whei'e I left off on the 3rd inst., I find from my diary of their movements that upon this afternoon they, like myself, found (mails notwithstanding) time to look in at the private view of the Academy, where they found Mr and Mrs Rous-Marten, and one or two other New Zealanders, making a belated pilgrimage towards 7 p.m. That evening Mr and Mrs Ward were present at a very smart ball given by Lord George Hamilton, at Ealing. Saturday your Treasurer and Mrs Ward spent as the guests of various City notables, who showed them over the Tower Bridge, the Mint, the Tower of London, the Guildhall, &c. On Sunday they paid a visit to Mr and Mrs Martin (of the Loan and Mercantile), and on Monday after a long day's business Mr Ward was at a couple of dinners, whilst his wife went with some friends to the opera. The Westralian Banquet was one of these meals, and a dinner given by Mr Nelson in Mr Ward's honour the other.

On the Bth, as already stated, Mrs Ward went to Court and held a reception, and late in the evening your Treasurer and his wife joined the big gathering at the National Liberal Club, and saw something of Lord Rosebery, Sir V. Harcourt, and the lights of up-to-date Radicalism. Thursday was a comparatively idle day, a lunch with Sir John Pender and the address to the Colonial Party at the House of Commons agreeably filling up the chinks between an arbitration case in the city and an evening at the Theatre. On Friday your Treasurer again sat on the arbitration case aforementioned, and dined, in company with Mrs Ward, with Lord and Lady Onslow at their town house, Richmond terrace, Whitehall.

On Saturday Mr and Mrs Ward a nd Sir W. Perceval were present at the Imperial • Institute at the invitation concert to hear the first performance of the renowned Strauss Orchestra (the finest string band in the world), and in the evening Mrs Ward went to a dinner and one or two receptions. Your Treasurer himself was present at the annual dinner of the Savage Club at the Holborn Restaurant, over which Mr Henry Irving presided. On this occasion speeches are permitted, and Mr Ward, in addition to hearing all the stock " stars " of the Club, listened to an admirable speech on the "Old and New Bohemia " from the chair. Sir W. C. Robinson (Governor of Western Australia) was unfortunately called on to answer for the guests. This was a pity, as Mr Ward would have done it far better. Sir William mounted his Western Australia gold hobby, and might have been talking now if we had not imperatively bade him sit down.

This week has been equally a rush. One evening Mr and Mrs Ward went down to Chislehurst, and dined and spent the night at the old home of the Empress Eugenie, now tenanted by Mr Chas. Balme, the wealthy wool-broker. They were shown the room in which Napoleon 111. died, and many interesting relics. Dinner parties and theatres filled in the rest of the week. Mr Ward has tired of public functions, and now refuses all save private invitations. He doesn't like London, says the place is too big for his taste. Some of the press folk, led astray by a " par." in tfe 9 Times, included Mr Ward in the special party invited to Warwick Castle to-night to meet the Prince of "Wales. Lady Warwick, it was remembered, asked Dibbs, of New South Wales, to join a similar party two years ago. The Hon Mr Ward, thus distinguished on the present occasion, was not,

however, the New Zealand Treasurer, but an obscure sprig of ariscocracy, the Hon R. Ward, Lord Dudley's brother. Surprise has been expressed by people unacquainted with the rigid laws governing Royal circles that Mr Ward should not have been "commanded" to either Marlborough House or Windsor. As a matter of fact, an invitation of the kind would have broken the regulation which relieves Royalty from recognising colonial magnates under the rank of Prime Minister. NEW ZEALAND IN 1895. We take the following from the Daily News of May 2nd : An address on " New Zealand in 1895 " was delivered on Tuesday evening by the Hon J. G. Ward, Finance Minister of New Zealand, before a meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute, which was held at the Royal United Service Institution. Sir Westby B. Perceval was in the chair. Mr Ward said all his audience would agree with him that the only way to arrive at the condition of prosperity of any country was by comparison, and it would be necessary to look back 50 years. Fifty years ago there were only a few struggling settlements at several points round the coast. Now, save that it was a new country, visitors would find very little difference between New Zealand and the old-established communities. Agriculture had been forwarded in all directions, there were railways with but few gaps from one end of the island to the other, while the facilities in the way of post and telegraph were seeond to no country. Fifty years ago Christianity was represented by a few missionaries; now there were 1200 churches in the Colony, 200 school-houses were used for public worship, and 160 dwellings and public buildings were used for the same purpose ; while they had a system of education which enabled everyone to pass through every standard and emerge fit to

engage in the battle of life well-educated people. Mr Ward said he wished to combat the idea that the community was an excessive-drinking one. There might be some people who drink to excess, but it would be found that the Colony stood eleventh in the list of nations as regarded the percentage of the consumption of beer and spirits. The local option system had been in operation for many years. People coxild prohibit the consumption of alcohol in their districts if they so desired. Mr Ward, glancing at what he called social legislation, mentioned that they had franchise for women, and paid a compliment to the way in which it was exercised, and explained the legislation in force as regarded strikes, which created a council appointed in the interests both of employers and employed, to which all quarrels had to be referred, and by the award of which the two parties had to abide. The council consisted of three persons, one nominated by the men, one by the masters, while the third was appointed by the Government. Mr Ward concluded by bearing testimony to the prosperity of New Zealand and the love the colonists bore the J Mother Country. Amongst those present ' were the Bishop of Salisbury, General Sim, j Sir P. Young, Sir J. P. Garrick, Six F. J Villeneuve Smith, Sir Julius "Vogel, Mr W. H. Preece, Mr H. Peck, Mr J. Duthie, Mr A. E. G. Rhodes, Mr G. Beetham, and Mr W. Kennaway.

There was a full meeting of the Ward Reception Committee at Thomas' rooms last night week, when the various sub-com-mittees brought up their reports, all of which were adopted. The procession will start from Jervois quay, as the Hon Mr Ward will land at that point instead of on the wharf proper, and will receive the address of welcome on a platform to be

erected adjacent thereto. By this arrangement the general public will be better accommodated, as there is an open space capable of holding some thousands of people between the Quay and the line of brick buildings on the reclaimed land. After the presentation of the adiress the procession, which will be on a very comprehensive and effective scale, will pass up Cuba-, street Extension, then down Manners, street and Lower Willis street, thencealong the whole length of Lambton quay tothe Thorndon esplanade. Here Mr and Mrs "Ward will be invited to. plant, each of them, a pohutukawa tree, it having been arranged by the authorities to merge Arbour Day (which had originally been fixed for July 20th) with the Ward reception holiday.. After this function Mr and Mrs Ward will,, be conducted to the Departmental Build-, ings. Every effort is being used to make the demonstration as imposing and effectual as possible, and if Wellington is onlyfavoured with " Queen's weather" on that day, the show will be a very successful. one. The committee will meet again on. Friday, 28th June.

The Harbour Board decided last week that a reply be sent to the J. G-. Ward Reception Committee giving permission to use the Jervois quay staging for the reception of Mr Ward, and that in the event of his arrival on Arbour Day, the, afternoon be declared to be a wharf halfholiday. The Hinemoa will bring the Colonial Treasurer from Onehunga to Wellington.