ELECTION TACTICS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16032, 24 January 1920, Page 5

ELECTION TACTICS.

SIR JOSEPH WARD’S COMMENTS. DETAILS POSSIBLE LATER, “DISGRACE EVEN TO BARBARIANS." Reference to methods adopted in tfao campaign for the recent General Election was made by Sir Joseph Ward in the course of a .speech at a luncheon tendered to him by members of the Libera] Party at Wellington. He indicated that ho would go into detail conceniinj methods used against him personally in the Awama district and in other parts of the country, when he returned to his old electorate in the next few days.. “I am fully conscious of the very bitter personal attack centred on me, as head of the Liberal Party, in practically every electorate in New Zealand.” he said. This was a concerted movement} as was instanced by the fact that for the fortnight before the elections many of the leading papers opposed to him dealt exclusively with the “Wardists” and did not attack the principles of the Liberal Party at all. Since the general election he had gathered information in the shape of literature, of a campaign against him that would he a disgrace and a discredit to the most barbaric people in the world. lie had been accused of doing things he had not done. The other party, as far as he was concerned, was quite welcome to be in power under such conditions, but, personally, he would not represent any constituency in Parliament, however much he might desire to help the country to which he owed so much, on the score of bigotry. (Applause.)

Jtoierring to the raising’ of the sectarian question, he said that in the 33 years in which he find been in Parliament, and in the 26 years in which he had been in Cabinet he Lad never heard brought up for consideration or discussion tilings which had been charged against him in black and white throughout the country. lie bad never heard the question of Protestantism or Catholicism raised in Cabinet. “1 have never had in any single instance,” continued .Sir Joseph, “a consultation with the head of any Church, my own or any other, in regard to an election of for the purpose of asking for support for my party; and I have never been asked by the heads of any religious organisation in the country ... to have my position used for the purpose of promoting the special interests of any Church or any section of Church people in this country. I want to say that . . . one of the most deplorable things that can occur to any country is to have the methods of the dark ages brought into it for the purpose of allowing any man to gain any position, however noble that position may be." Xever once had ho attempted to appoint anyone to the Public Service on the score of their religion; in point of fact, in nine cases out of ten it was impossible for any Minister to know the religion of any aspirant. lie wished none of these people harm, but he was not going to allow the people of this country to remain under a wrong impression. Ho wanted the people to be able to judge of the true position, and to know that there had been in his electorate so-called Christians, some of them working for two-and-a-half years, attacking him, not on public questions, but making absolutely lying statements for the purpose of putting him out of public life when the time came.

Sir Joseph also spoke of attempt to impugn his loyalty, saying that on*, man, now a member of tbs Itofor* Party, bad classed him as an associate of Bolshevists. He had gathered a deal of information about the campaign, and he would deal with these mafci ters more fully in his own electorate shortly.