SIR JOSEPH WARD LEAVING FOR ENGLAND TO-DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 201, 20 May 1920, Page 4

SIR JOSEPH WARD LEAVING FOR ENGLAND TO-DAY

1 FAREWELL WORDS. Sir Joseph Ward is to leave Wellington to-day tho Tofna for Great Britain via America. He probably will not return to New Zealand before next year, but he lias not made exact plans. Ho will bo accompanied by Lady Ward. Speaking to a reporter yesterday, Sir Joseph Ward declined to discuss politics and tho political situation. "Of course. I take as much interest in them ns ever I. did," he said, and then added smilingly, "but the electors have given me a holiday,'' and I am not going to be so ungracious as to hang about the schoolroom." He made some allusions to the general election when addressing his old friends in the south, nnd they were in print for everyone to 6ee, but he hoped his political opponents would believe him when he said he was carrying no personal bitterness away with him. He had received hard knocks nnd had returned them, but ho liked to think there had been no personal illwill on either side. Public life would bo intolerable were it otherwise. ""No. I cannot sny how' long I will be away. Everything will depend on circumstances—the progress of the business I have in hand, the demands of my friends, perhaps my health; yes, and' to an extent my inclinations." To' tho rumour that lie is contemplating an excursion into Imperial politics, Sir Joseph AVnrd gave an emphatic denial, qualified at once bv n recognition of the duty that lies upon. every citizen of the Empire. "A man might find himself at any moment," ho explained, "confronted bv a set of circumstances that would alter tho whole course of his life, and call him to some unexpected sphere of activity. That anything of this sort is going to happen to nie I have no idea at present, but I can see no further than other people can into the future." _ Sir Joseph Ward could not give an opinion concerning the financial position of the Dominion without appearing to introduce,- party politics; but he'would sav, without imagining his views were different from those of his political op-, ponents, that the great requirement of the country in the years to como would be courageous and vigorous, as well as careful and economical, administration. New Zealand had had greatness thrust upon her, so to speak, by the war. She had a great public debt, a great burden of taxation, and great social nnd industrial problems to solve; but she also had great resources, great virility, nnd great traditions. The opportunities of the Government, by whatever name it might be called, would be as big as would be its responsibilities.He hoped it would remain a strictly non-party question, but Sir Joseph Ward's urgent appeal to the electors on the eve of his departure would be to see that thev obtained some measure of electoral Teform during the life of tho present Parliament. There was no need to reiterate the figures he had quoted in the south. They simply showed that the Dominion, with all it boasted universal suffrage, was retaining "one of the most ineffective and uncertain. systems of election known within the Empire." He did not stress the matter because the system had operated against himself nnd his friends—this merely personal aspect was of small consequence— but because Parliament would never be truly representative of the people till they had an equitable system of election.

"But with all this, and with all the other handicaps from which wo are suffering," Sir Joseph Ward added: "I havo no fear for the future of this splendid little country. There may be many a hard task before us, many a stiff hill to climb, but we havo only to brace ourselves up to the effort to pull through all right, and the goal, always in sight, is well worth' winning. My personal interest in the country will never' flag, whatever the future may hold for me, and I trust the people of New Zealand who have treated me so well in the past and a.re treating me so well now, will remember mo with tho same kindly feeling as I have towards them."