Reception of the Colonial Treasurer.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 10, 11 July 1895, Page 2

Reception of the Colonial Treasurer.

(Pen: Press Association). Wellington, July 10. Mr Ward was entertained at c banquet in the Drillshed tonight. Fully three hundred guests were present. Sir Walter Buller occupied the chair. The company included all members of the Ministry, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and a large number of both branches of the Legislature. The usual loyal toast* having been duly honored. In acknowledging the toast of his health Mr Ward referred to tit press criticisms he had been subj.ct)d to both before his depanue from the Colony and on h : s ar, iral at Home. The hostile critiiisoas rpp taring in che New Zealand jiaj esLd been marked and sent Home with the view of damaging him and this Colony, but •o tlie honor of those wh> conducted newspapers at Home, I c it said, they refused to publish these c iti;isms and characterised them as cowardly and uufair. These attempts to depreciate him and his Ministry Lad failed. He gave Sir Westby Percival all credit for what he had done at Home, but the Agent General himself would adnm that the 3 per cent loan could not and would not have been successfully put upon the market had he (Ward) not been present in London. He said this, although no one could accuse him of being an egotistical man. He warmly denied the accusation that he had made misleading statements in Loudon, and his accusers were not patriots but enemies of the country. Their action was due solely to a desire to turn the Ministry out of office and gain the Treasury benches them- : elves, and there were people in the Colony at present prepaied to put almott anything on record in ort?6r to attain iiis object. He fels 6ure the Colony had a great futi 16 bef. re it, and when her t ade was more fu ly expanded the hereafter wtulcl be grea'er than eveu the moat sanguine expected. Th* Mayor of Wellington then proposed the toast of the Ministry. He said the present Government had passed many laws of great good to the people, and he congratulated Mr Ward on the great success attending his visit to England. Hon. Mr Seddon responded to the toast of the Ministry. He considered his colleague, the Colonial Treasurer, stood on the highest pinnacle that any man who had ever left the colony bad reached. He referred to the good work Mr Ward had done during his absence from the colony, and said he had earned the salary of the whole of his colleagues for the next twelve months.