PARLIAMENTARY SILHOUETTES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 41, 8 October 1892, Page 1004

PARLIAMENTARY SILHOUETTES.

iBY

BIRD’S-EYE.

THE Postmaster General is my subject to day, and a very agreeable one he is ; agreeable for several reasons —first, because he is one of the good-looking men of the House ; secondly, because his manners are, like his smile, very prepossessing ; thirdly, because he has a nice voice which he can use in debate with excellent effect without ever overstepping the bounds of legitimate criticism fourthly, because he is an able and successful Minister; fifthly, because he is a charming and popular member of society : sixthly, because he is a devoted husband and affectionate son ; and seventhly, because, so far as appears, there is nothing objectionable about him.

Owing, probably, to his happy combination of agreeable with more sterling characteristics, the Hon. Mr Ward has had the good fortune to attain to an eminent position in the very meridian of his days, for as he was born in 1857, his years now number only some thirty five, an age when most men who begin life without peculiar advantages are still grinding away at the foundation of their fortune s edifice. Mr Ward, on the contrary, upreared his as though by magic, anti, apparently, was able to ‘ command success front the outset, a result, however, not at all attributable to ‘ accident,’or “luck,’ but the outcome of superior business faculty, united with integrity of conduct, and, doubtless, aided by his pleasant manners.

I am sorry not to be able to claim Mr Ward, absolutely, as a compatriot, since he was born in Melbourne, but, as be was brought to New Zealand while still a small child, he is the very next thing to the genuine article, and, certainly, his career is one in which we may all take pride. He began it very early in his teens, when he entered the Post and Telegraph Department, in which he remained some three years, a? ptiring experience which has since proved useful, an 1 gaining an insight into its working and drawbacks which has stimulated him, in his capacity of Post-master-General, to introduce many needed reforms.

But in those days his enterprising spirit and mental activities found no field for their exercise in a department in which he necessarily occupied a very subordinate position ; so, quitting the service, he entered a counting house, where for four years, he applied himself to garnering in stores of commercial knowledge, and to obtaining a practical acquaintance with the details of mercantile life. Five years later, while sca.cely of age, we find the courageous future Minister established in business on his own account, in Invercargill as a wholesale export grain and produce merchant.

Fourteen years only have elapsed since then, but such has been Mr Ward's phenomenal success, that, besidesowning extensive establishments at the Bluff, Gore, and elsewhere, his grain steres at Invercargill now cover an area of threequarters of an acre : and he is on the point of erecting extensive warehouses in the Empire City, having, for that purpose, acquired a first class site adjoining Queen s Wharf. Various other commercial enterprises have received an impetus from Mr Ward's connection with them, and he has also, with a view to encouraging and developing Southland pastoral interests, established important freezing works at the Bluff’.

Although Mr Ward's commercial faculties displayed such an early and rapid development, it must not be supposed that all his energies were absorbed in the accumulation of ‘ filthy lucre.' Nothing, indeed, could be farther from the truth, for his tenrpsram rnt was snch as to dispose him to the full enjoyment of the pleasures and pastimes natural to unspoiled youth, and he therefore found time for field sports, and aquatic contests ; for music, dance, and song. He is very fond of music, and sings very well indeed : his voice being a pleasant baritone. He is fond of dancing, and, indeed, of all social pleasures, and is excellent company ; he excels in atter-dinner speeches, his remarks being biief, pointed, anil felicitous.

His ; üblic life began soon after his majority when he was eh.-ted to a seat on the Borough Council of Campbelltown, of which lie subsequently became Mayor. He was also for many years a member of the Bluff Harbour Board, for a considerable part of the time filling the position of Chairman. In all local entet prises he was to be found taking a foremost part ; the Invercargill Athemeum, the <'ampbelltown Cricket Club, the Southland Bowing < 'lub, own him as President ; he is a member of the Invercargill Chamber of Commerce, and is also Captain of the Bluff' Naval*, a corps he was chiefly instrumental in forming, and which, at the time of the Parihaka trouble*, proved its patriotism by ottering its services unreservedly to the Government.

Mr Ward entered the House of Representatives in 1887, having successfully contested the Awarua seat. During that Parliament he displayed the judicious reticence of a wise and modest man. but the financial ability characteris-

ing his occasional speeches secured him an attentive hearing whenever be felt impelled to address the House. At the last general election his return to Parliament was unopposed, and, on the formation of the Ballance Ministry, he was offered a seat in the Cabinet. His acceptance of the portfolio of Postmaster-General was hailed with very general satisfaction, for his peculiar qualifications were widely known, and his courteous manners had made him popular with men of all parties. His management of his department has been such as to win him the esteem of all his subordinates, and many useful reforms attest its excellence, the greatest boon being his system of classification for the officers. Mr Ward represented the colony with conspicuous ability at the Australian Postal Conference, where he did good service for New Zealand. Oar Postmaster-General is very well-known in the other colonies over which he has travelled several times. In Sydney and Melbourne he has many friends his figure being almost as well known in those cities as it is in Invercargill. Mrs Ward is, as Mr Ward's wife should be, a charming and graceful woman : her pretty slight figure is above the medium height, her features are good,complexion bright and

clear, manners very agreeable, her fair hair is turned back from a smooth, open brow, her eyes are of a clear, soft grey, and her smile exceedingly winning. Like her husband, Mrs Ward enjoys society, and social pleasures, and is

passionately fond of music. Politically, she has no personal ambition, being quite content to gather laurel wreaths by proxy ; the vote she thinks women are entitled to, but she feels no overpoweiing interest in questions of Woman’s Rights, and regards with aversion any suggestion of the possibility of the weaker sex some day occupying seats in the country's legislature.