THE COLONIST.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13801, 26 August 1913, Page 4

THE COLONIST.

PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1933

AN APPRECIATION OF SIR

JOSEPH WARD.

The "Financial News" of July 3rd devotes' a long article to an appreciation of the ex-Prime Minister of New Zealand, written when Sir Joseph Ward was on tho high seas returning to the Dominion. Referring to the unofficial , nature of tho visit Home, it says that though relieved of • tho rather oppressive hospitality showered upon him and his fellow Prime Ministers at the time of ■tho Imperial Conference in 1911, Sir Joseph was warmly welcomed in private and public circles. Many who were unable to entertain- him two years ago, when ho was so fully oc-' cupied, were glad of the opportunity to testify to the esteem felt for tho most prominent statesman of a Dominion which in its brie? history of self-go-vernment has produced so many men, hot only able in politics but individual in character. It is a very marked trait in older New Zealanders that they liko to attribute some of the distinctiveness of the politics in the Dominion to tho fact that the people graduated in government under such a past master as the late Sir George Grey, -who was Governor, and later Prime Minister of the then colony. Sir Joseph Ward enjoyed the hospitality of Cabinet Ministers, and several of the leading city companies, one of which made him a Freeman; a not inconsiderable addition to tho honours bestowed on Sir Joseph by successive sovereigns. "A private visit home like this of Sir Joseph Ward's," adds the "Financial News," "freed from administrative and political duties, after an xinusually long spell of office, is in some respects more interesting and illuminative than the attendance of a Prime Minister at an Imperial Conference. Sir Joseph Ward, the Minister, can hardly let. himself go with the same ardency in advocating- tho charms and attractions and the political perfections of his country, as he can when he is free from all suspicion of praising the results of his own administration. The Government which supplanted his has had.no jealousy of his welcome.in the Home. Country, as a representative New Zealander. In 'short, we may derive from his visit a. truer sens© of Imperial perspective which shows that at -a great distance the Ministerialist and the Opposition aro only two varieties of the same patriotism." The London newspaper next proceeds to a reviow of Sir Joseph Ward's official career, remarking.that his experi-. ence of administrative and executive^ work must be almost unrivalled in the Empire, and it enumerates the portfolios he held in Mr Seddon's and his own Administrations, paying a tribute especially to his 'work as PostmasterGeneral, when he introduced wireless telegraphy," automatic telephones, and other improvements, without tho unconscionable delays which usually precede tho introduction of novelties in a State Department. As Minister of Railways Sir Joseph W rard was responsible for much extension and for the development of a policy of charging low', uniform rates, without rebate, in favour of any locality or interest. Two classes of freight receive favoured treatment. Lime is carried free, as an aid to agriculture, and school children travel free, this costing tho Dominion less than a multiplication of schools in sparsely populated localities. The | "Financial News" finds proof of the \ wisdom -of the policy with which Sir Joseph Ward was associated, first under Mr Seddon, and later as Prime Minister himself, in the fact that the population of New Zealand, is not crowding -into the towns, but is well distributed throughout the islands. "That," it says, "is the fruit as much of the railway as of the land policy of successive Governments, but Sir Joseph Ward would not improbably tell you that it is partly becauso every part of New Zealand is good to live in. Ho doos not, perhaps, go so far as Mr Seddon, who* made a habit of closing his annual "Budget speeches by referring to 'God's Own Country'; but when ho addressed tho Society of Arts on New Zealand, in May, he gave his address the.sub-title of "An.ldeal Place of Residence.' He owned that the Dominion is young, that it lacks many advantages that antiquity has bequeathed to tho old Motherland;. on the other hand, it has all the freshness and vigour of youth, and (ffi rulers have taken heed of what England's long, history has taught them to avoid or to,modernise. Oh one point New Zealanders hold the old-fashioned ideas. They believe a country so well worth living in is well worth defending, and lately they have been seeing^ with interest .and delight, the splendid battleship they have presented to the British Navy. And Sir Joseph Ward had a good pa,rt in that transaction.''