SIR JOSEPH WARD

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 5, 21 December 1928, Page 7

SIR JOSEPH WARD

ROMANTIC CAREER. A TRIBUTE FROM MELBOURNE. .The. fact that Sir Joseph Ward once again occupies Benches in N&w Zealand.gives addled point to the' following, written by /W.M.j and publislhied 'in the Melbourne Herald jon the Friday after the General Election at which,' the Reform Party fared so badly and the United Fixrby- did so well:— "Melbourne is linked with New) Zealand politics because cf the fact that Sir Joseph Ward, the last of Seddon's stalwart's, '■■ is one of h)er sons, having been born at Emerald Hill on 26th April, 1856, "■ writes W.M. "One of the great political romances of the Dominion, the history of Sir Joseph Ward, reads like a strange mixture of Alice in Wonder,, land, Dick Whittingicn, and half a dozen characters in jShlajkespeare,. "Educated" first'* in Victoria privately, then at a State school at the Bluff (New Zealand), & post and telegraph messenger at 13> merchant on his own, accciuht at 21, a captain of industry in the South Island la-fc. 31, Ward became, at 37, the youngest Minister in Seddjon's Cabinet. Business embarrassments oika most &er * ious and nature followed, and in these Seddon stuck loyally, with) Bjritish, bulldojg iStubbornness > toi his colleague. Political rejuvenation carngj and then a glorious career of political power untif the; death of his chief in 1906. "As ""Postmaster-Geneml Ward achieved penny postage in the Dominion, for which he w*as knighted. A sterling Imperialist, he was the first man to advocate the All-Red Cable service, now ia, naccomplished fact; a wizard of finance, he was the fi man in Australian or New Zealand political history to raise ia.,3 per cent. loan, which was . effected to; advance money to settlers; a man wiioi tkougiir in oceans, as Admiral Fisher would say, he secured that old sea dog's confidence, and in 1909 placed Mewi Zealand Ciii the political map, by offering the Mother Country one or, it necessary, two battle-cruisers, "The freedom of the cities of London, Edinburgh, Bristol, and Manchester, and a baronetcy; followed/ these great public efforts, and then again came dark political oblivion, this time at the handis, of Massey and his Reform party in 19)12. , NEVER, LOST, JH[EART.

"A super-optimist, Sir Joseph nev-, er once lost heart. 1 saw him in Sydney just before the wiM"* and lie wa& quite certain that soon he would turn ttbe ..tables on iMassey. {Bust" when it came to the 'pinch, trueheartedly he became "a "colloigue in the National Ministry w.th his former political enemy as Prime Minister until 1919, when some sort, of crazy bnain-wave impelled him to propose a poetical disruption, which was followed jby jhis defeat for the .third time—political disaster, almost extermination.. "Most people thought that Wiard was now. done with politically. His speeches lacked' coherency, and the. man himself lacked concentration,, except, when ho talked! of the past. "Defeated in 'an election Ml 19*23', [Ward now was described as politically extinct, although as a business 'man and a director of miuiy public companies he was still as successful

as ever. / "Then the old war horse makes a trip to England. He helirs rumblings from far-off New Zealand', which to a •political (instinct, trained (through: long years by astute Richard Seddon, even now hTive a meaning. Meantime his parlyC of which he is the. sole parHamentarV Survivor, rejuvenates itself and is born again amid the pc>U itical jeers of the other two pities, He oontounSs his followers witn a Mi cawhemlike £70,000,000 loan policy. He becomes famous, and, after at absence of eighteen years, .again th< Prime Minister-elect of his loved Do minion.