“FORTY YEARS A LIBERAL”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18614, 9 July 1930, Page 8

“FORTY YEARS A LIBERAL”

SIR JOSEPH WARD’S DISTINGUISHED CAREER

"Upon the record of his remarkable career,” says R. A. Loughnan in his “Biography of Sir Joseph Ward/’ the friends of Sir Joseph Ward will 100., back with kindly, satisfied appreciation. They see the brilliant light of successes rising over one another. they mark the dark touches of the share of troubles that no man escapes in this world. They note the steady moderation of prosperous days, as also the courage of the dark momenta They appreciate, as they observe tn cheerful tact of his Parliarrentarv leadership, the generosity that has be ccme a household word, the resourceminers at e”ery crisis, the imfailing initiative. The early popularity fiorn the earliest days in his own province which, continuing undimnm*' through the years, gave him the warmest public reception on every return from abroad, the continued faith in the man they have known from first to last—all this embellishes the record of his days. The moral of this career must b r touched. The whole career, political, comercial and social, is of special interest to the student of the political system under which we live and hope.

Freedom of all Kinds, including the freedom of oportunity to all, is the aim of the best constitution. Thi*caieer is a te'/t of the constitution of this Dolinin-' Opinions differ, must differ always, about many things in the woikiig of this constitution o ours—all the things of development and progress. And there must always be need for .id-ustment. But in the brsic natter of freedom and opportunity there can be but one opinion—any one of us who has experience of the course of colonial development, can without a moment’s hesitation, name dozens of men risen from nothing igreatness. in cases political, in case 7 co’pmem lo !. in cas nc industrial, m

cases professional. They comprise all sorts ana co ditiors of men—-lane owners, lawyers, merchants, captains ot industry, builders and al* risen from the lowest rungs, an successful climbers of the great ladder of result. Strikinglv prominent are two Ohmf Justices of the Dominion, rise*" by their own unaided exertions to eminence, c rom position of the lowesl financial level. With all these stands the career of Sir Joseph W r ard. It has a special prominence. Like the otheir of the type that succeeds, he found the wav clear for those who. facing the hard, selfish world buckled to. Like his fe’lews of the right type, he rose steadily, superior to misfortune. As Messenger Boy. His case is spectacular. He began as a messenger boy, wearing the simple uniform familiar in our streets, and he attained to the brilliant court dress which statesmen who have made.their mark in the great world are privileged to wear. His first political efforts warn in the smallest of municipal councils, his latest were among princes, deliberating on the destinies of nations and tk-» welfare of peoples, and taking his re with «t th* tables of council, he held his own. The men he met at these tables had, for the most part, been trained in great schools and famous universities. His training was the public elementary school,- and the world of affairs in which, by his own exertions—observation. study, mastery of facts—he acquired the knowledge and readiness that enabled him to debate great issues with these men favoured by high education This seed of self-education gave him harvests of achievement, theoretical and material.

This happened to him, under the constitution Ahat rules this country Under that constitution he went, from the vestibule where messages are given out for delivery, to the Cabinet room, in which great issues of human import are decided. One of the most ooscure

among ihe governed, he became one of the leaders of the governing power. Compare with the things that happen in England—the Salisbury family, for example—the great House of Cecil. It has governed England almost continuously from the “spacious days” of Elizabeth. It is rich in traditions m Go\ernment, traditions of diplomacy, traditions of statecraft. Its members have pillared the universities of their country with'their numbers, and seen men and cities by much travelling. Full of knowledge, and heirs of eminence, did they rely on themselves for political advancement? Yes, but as a general rule, only up to the moment when the nepotism hallowed by centuries of precedent wrapned them up like the cloud that enveloped Elijah in the fiery chariot, and their chariot of rising w»o the Cabinet of their bleeding country. Only the other day, when the great Marquis of \ ictorian days, who. it must be said, owed nothing to nepotism, was at the height of ,his power, that chariot carried five members of his family. Some folk wondered, but no folk said anything—and, indeed, who shall say anything to the Cecils? See how different the rise of Ward in our political firmament. Without Alma Mater, without degrees, without tiaditions, without the nepotism that takes all these to its capacious and biased bosom, this career came to the greatness equal in its country to the greatness of the Cecils in theirs. Land of Opportunity. Is there anything very wrong in the Government of the country in which there is such opening of careers to the talents of the people? It may require changes and reforms of practice by adjustments, and does so, and pets on, as the story of the Liberal Party under its reforming leaders has amply proved. But there is in some quarters a call for more than adjustments. The career of Sir Joseph Ward—with many ether life successes among us—is i ti umpet proclamation of the futility of the crowd that gets nowhere because its ambitions are dreams, and of the unreason that prefers mass intentions to individual effort. In a world that discourages individual effort, individ--1 ual initiative, individual lesponsibility. Sir Joseph Ward and the very many men whose careers adorn our civilisation, would be unseen, unheard, and unmarked . Their fine qualities would be lost to the community that needs them. The constitution which has opened the way to their careers requires no radical amendment, and those careers prove that they, and the men who made them, can be trusted to make those adjustments of practice v benever they are needed. Such is this lesson of Sir Joseph’s career. Whatever happens to him and his Cabinet, that supreme lesson will never be forgotten in the New Zealand he has served so long and so well.