SIR JOSEPH WARD.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2119, 9 April 1914, Page 8

SIR JOSEPH WARD.

SPEECH AT THE TOWN HALL. STILL HO POLlCl]||fii;;. : : Sir Josealt Ward, Leader "of tho Opposition, delivered a political address in tho Town Hall last evening. . The build- j ills' was crowded, and the speaker was accorded a friendly- reception and a quiet hearing. There -was hardly a smclo hostile interjection throughout j the evening. Sir Joseph Ward arrived j at eight o'clock, accompanied by Lady I Ward (who was presented with a bouquet), his chairman. Mr. T. M. Wilford, M.P.. and Mrs. Wilford. There was ; loud cheering find applause as the party took the platform. ■' . Mr. Wilford said that in accepting the position of chairman he did so with pleasure, for Sir Joseph Ward was neither a speech contortionist nor a man who had changed his political coat. (Applause.) Tho applause which broke out as Sir, Wilford sat down swelled into a. volume of dicers as Sir Joseph Ward stepped forward. From the body of tho hall came- an injunction: "Shake them up, ,Tor:l" After acknowledging his reception. Sir Joseph Ward want on to contend that the "right of free spew" •should bo accorded to men of all political parties; Ho complained that attempts had been made to make him responsible for the action which some, people had taken against free speech, and ho claimed that tho Eeformers in Parliament had denied tfo. tight of free speech to tho representatives of tho people. Also, he recalled an occasion when ho was yelled and hooted at in Wellington after the last general election. Similar things, ha said, wore done in various parts of' New Zealand. Ho bad never seen ono of the Reformers endeavouring to put this sort of thing down. Ho wont on to state that bis colleagues and himself had suffered by distortion of their remarks by papers representing trio large landed and large financial interests. They went in for R system of altering the. tone of a. meetJug entirely, where they eoukl by sup* presskm and distortion of facts, and some of them, ho was sorry to say, by 'deliberate misrepresentation, and they added to that abuse. "And i" ■• poor fellows who are paid by those sponsible for conducting. these organs," he continued, "think, some of them, that a substitute for brains anil ability in the high and honourable profession of tho Press is descending to deliberate misrepresentation, and often of the very vilest character.'* Prohibition! Ho denied a statement attributed to him that "Prohibition would certainly not bo a pla»k in what would be a sound patriotic platform/'' Ho had made- no statement of the kind. While ho was speaking at Auckland a well-known Prohibitionist interjected and asked whether Prohibition would he a plank in tlto Liberal policy, when it. earns down. Ho replied that it would not, as Prohibition was a non-party question. {Applause.) He went on to deal with the subject of (inance on the linos of his previous speeches, claiming that tho Government by quoting statistics of Liberal adminiV tration and taking credit' for Liberal surpluses i' l -its loan-raisins operations, had discredited tho financial criticism advanced by its members in-past years. Either what they had said in the House for years past was incorrect and .misleading, or what they told tile people of England a few nioaths ago was wrong. (Applause.) The Government, ; he continued, had not carried out promises to stop berrowing and to rejjbrm the fiscal system by reducing tho' cost of living. Reform of the Legislative Council had been, one- of the things 'the Government was- go-tog to carry out. Tho Prime Minister tlie-it believed in proportional representation. Tho first thittg. tho Government did, tiiey appointed, or upon their representations were appointed,, four men who had previously been unable ■to be _ returned to tho'Botise of Eeprescntatives on their appeal to the country. How name it. if .tho Prime Minister was Btncere in his proposals, that the Government was "stuffing" tho Upper House when, vacancies ceeurredp The industrial Waf'fafa. Sir Joseph Ward referred to the recent strike, and mentioned that it had been circulated in his electorate that ho wa-s responsible- for the- strike. When the present Minister ef Justice (the Hon, A- L. Herdman) was in Wyndham, ho said that it was ridiculous to say Sir .Josephs Ward was responsible; for the strike. That was kind of him, said Sir Joseph. As a matter. of fact, in that portion of tho .country, where he (tho speaker) was well known, they might just as well. have tried to '■push water up the slopes of Mount Victoria with a puff out of tho Reform twisters, about the strike, as to try to makes the peoplo believe that 1-w was ■ responsible for anything' of the kind/' Ho wanted to say that ho believed in the right of teen to strike if they wasted to do so, Tho moment they said the right to strife* ahouH not exist thoy struck a distinct blow at ihe right of the individual to maintain his position, and improve it if he elected so to do. He had said repeatedly that he did not believe that- the strike wis tho best rnelbod *f obtaining what the- workers desired. He didjiot believe a sympathetic strifc-o in this country, _ or _. any other country, had been effective in obtaining what tho workers set-out to obtain. From the inception of the strike the Liberal Party resolved, and unanimously agreed, that they would not interfere with tho Government in the management of tho strike, because upon the Government rested tho whole responsibility of settling that strike. The Government could have -settled the ! strike if they had gone about it in the right way. (Applause.) A.voico; They could jtot have settled the strikers, though I Sir Joseph Ward said that he denied : tho right of any Government to abs'o- ■ gate its functions and hand them over to a Citizens'. Committee, no m&tter who tho Citizens' Committee- might be (Applause.) Ho went on to road a quotation fronv a speech delivered in the Houso by tho present Minister of Finance at tho time of tlio big strike in 1890. Mr. Allen had said: "It f« no doubt right that members should bring tip in this He-uso- nnv que&ftnn ' which may occur to them which ought to bo answered, irTiilb tTi6 Striko is going on." On the same owasion Mr. Allen expressed ft Bops thai if ifo Government could deal with those on either side- to about a solution, if. would do so. These remarks _wero made in connection with tho maritime strike of 18-90. At that- time Mr. Allen urged the Government to do anything it could to bring about a settlement of the strike that existed at tKat time. Stdko Suggestions.! Sir Joseph Ward claimed that he had suggested te tho Government three methods bv whicTT l-hoy could have marto an eiid of tlw strike. Ono suggestion was time a committee, consisting of five won from each side, should he set up to'iiromote a settlement. Secondly, he bad suggested that Sir Joshua Williams fh'onW'be asked to ni'bitrnte. and thirdly he had suggested Clint- tho Government slttinld legislate to create an indewmdeftt Ivibun.il "to df-al with the strike. Ho blamed the Government for inaction during the strike, and stilted that both Mr- Alien and Mr. Mnsscy liM'lju former years denounced tho Arbitration Act, " Mr. Herduifm also had stated iiiat the Arbitration Act bad widened fh-p wulf between employers and workers, mid he wiped off the Statute Book, became it- had often demonstrated

to bo useless. To-day members of tho Government were ioiid»nKmtlrcd in declaring their admiration of the arbitration system, which for ten years they had. resolutely nttd determinedly condemned. (Applause.) Tho strike, Sir Joseph Ward contended, in leaving tiro subject, should have teen resolutely confined at its inception "to a largo i local shipping company," and to tho men who were at issue with it. (Applause.) Second Ballot Repeal. Speaking of the contest which took place in tho House over tho roneai of tho Second Ballot, Sir Joseph" Ward contended that no Speaker and no Chairraa.ii of Committees had a right to take sides with ft. political party, or limit the privileges of the representatives of tho people in Opposition. (Applause.) He next dealt in some detail with a circular issued by tho secretary of tho Reform League "at the time "of ,tho strike. "'The gaff," ho remarked, ''was Mown upon the whole thing." The only way in which lie could describe the James circular, and. another vhfcfe had been sent out in the Nelson district, and probably in other districts, was by saying that it was "a contemptible, cowardly,'blackguardly, lying document." (Applause.-)

Post Office Square Charge* Sir Joseph Ward dealt with an in- ■ cideiit during tho course -of the strike. Ho had been told, lie said, that at a disturbance in Post Office Square trio, specials, after the trouble was oircr, turned and clubbed dawn innocent men, wiiicij, and chil-dron. Be informed thePrime Afiiiistor of this, and 3lr, Mftsscy said ho would inquire into it, and if fro found it was true, would seo that it did not occur again. He (Sir Joseph) wanted to say that if there was any likelihood of trouble occurring between strikers and special constables it was the bcundc-n duty of the Government- to see that ■innocent men, women and children wore first cleared away. That was not done. Ho lvould not have done ins dirty had ho hot- mentioned the matter, but now ho found his opponents were- going over the Country endeavouring to create antagonistic feeling between the farmers and tho Liberal Party. Ho wanted to soy that not a small farmer was asked to, go on tho Citizens' Committee; not a small trader; or a moderate- worker. The Citizens' Committee was repJeseated by one class, and one class only, Only Two Parties. A claim by Reform that there would only bo two parties in the future, Reform-Liberal ana Red Feds., was dealt- with, and tho speaker-said that • Mr; Massey wanted to annex tho Liberal Party. He {tho Speaker) had 'said, publicly, that the Liberals could net support the lied Fed. platform, but thero was evidence- that tho Reform Party asked their party to support tho men "at tho last seconi ballot, whom they were howling against to-day.- The amusing'partof it was that- the Liberals were now being told they were to' ho taken in by tho Reformers. In other words, "the tail was asking ti'jtsUtshould bo allowed to waggle the dog," The- Liberal Party were on the side of a policy which would be placed before tho people'in due course, and they werenot going to -sway from their coufse. (Applause.) Be ojjpescd tho system of Commissioner control of tho. PuMjc Servico as undemocratic, Thero should bo no power, in - this country ■outside the Government, which was responsible to the taxpayers. The Government was inconsistent in »ot applying the.*fflimv system to the whole Public- Service, No railway concessions were to be looked for from the present (soverntirfln-t,-wh-orc-as tho present Opposition when in power had granted cancellous aggregating two millions. In addition., it had given fair wages to railway surfacemen. Ho criticised the importation, of a (Jo'iV eral Manager of Railways as a -poof compliment to Now Zen-kndere. (Shame.) The Liberal Government had raised railway earnings from £2 Ss.' lid. per cent, to £4 is. per Gent., A Statement Challenged, f He denied tho accuracy of a.statement, made by Mr. Massey at Tapanui that when tho present Gnvciiimeut took. (tflico tho Treasury had been depleted. This was incorrect, as was shown by tho fact that, the finance- Minister, in his Budget for 1912, showed a surplus of £807,276. It was irtte that it had been provided by his predecessor, Sir Joseph Ward dealt with ftaval matters, and attacked the naval policy cf the Government in terms similar to tijoso he had employed in prevw-tts.-speeches. He maintained that a local navy would mean a- financial bneak-dowtt in the defence- system. Ho predicted that in. four years from no*, after the one Bristol cruiser had. been, obtained defence expenditure would total £1,W,0Q0, The Mberal Pedigree. ~ Conolqdmg, Sir Joseph Ward referred to various works, brought about by the Liberal Party, in which Now Zealand m$ much in advaiwe of Aus- : tralia. The Liberal Party had'a tea- : scumble claim to say to. the people: "Look at our record. Yet they were toid they ought to come Hmvn with their policy. CoUtd they hot, with , confidence, ask the people to do the same as they would do were they selecting a "dog or a horse—look at- their pedigrees before making a final selection f The Liberal Party had always been on. the si-do of the weak, and thfeir pedigree of work done was only what could he expected in tho future, (Applause.) Sir Joseph Ward was loudly applauded on resuming Ids seat. The following motion was moved from the hall by Mr. Walton.—'That-.this large, meeting of Wellmston citizens nscofd to Sir' Joseph Ward its heartiest thanks for his clear, able. and. forward address this evening, and wish the Liberal Party, of which m is thehead, success at the forthcoming election," Tho resolution was carried without few. dissentients, and cheers were given far Sir Joseph and Lady Ward,