POLITICIANS I HAVE KNOWN

Hokitika Guardian, 31 July 1928, Page 4

POLITICIANS I HAVE KNOWN

JOHN BALLANCE.

A MAN OF SACRIFICES

By S. SAUNDERS

“ We shall never cease our efforts until we have done something to ameliorate the conditions of the people, and to promote that common prosperity which should be the aim and end of all political effort.”

These ore the stirring words with which John Ballance concluded the last of his great speeches in the House of Representatives. The occasion was the presentation of his second Financial Statement after his promotion to the Treasury Benches in succession to Sir Harry Atkinson, in January, 1891. Less than nine months later, worn out physically by strenuous public service and still striving for the welfare of bis adopted country, he passed on to the rest he had so well earned. Some twenty odd years before, this son of a small Irish tenant farmer had arrived in the colony, not rich in worldly goods, but possessed of qualities, inherited and acquired, which quickly made him a man of mark among bis fellows. He was not merely a dreamer of dreams. It was rather his destiny to give shape and substance and effect to the dreams of earlier pioneers who had missed their opportunity or fainted by the way. Drawn towards journalism and politics by such literature as came within his reach as a lad, and inspired by reading circles and debating societies as a young man. be managed in due course to establish himself as proprietor and editor of a newspaper in Wanganui, from whence lie continued to expound the gospel of beneficieut Liberalism with increasing ardour and conspicuous ability almost up to the time of his death. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 187.5, to fill a vacancy occasioned by tiie retirement of Sir William Fox as member for Rinigitikei, and was reelected for the same seat at the geiici.il election of the following year, Sir Vi illiarn Fox coming back as member for Wanganui. HIS APPRENTICESHIP.

Mr Ballance had been in the House scarcely two years when ho acquired Cabinet rank in company with Sir Robert Stout, as a member of the ill-star-red Grey Ministry. One mentions the two ardent Liberals together because they were close personal friends, inspired by much the same political ideals and destined to the same disappointments. They both laboured bard and conscientiously to overcome the difficulties that beset them, only to find, after months of honest effort, that incompatibility of temperament, as Mr Balia nee once confided to me in his chivalrous way, prevented them being of an.; real service to their political chief. 'll’O , whole story does not call for recital here. Five years later, in tlfo fetoutYogel Ministry, Mr Ballance held the portfolios of Native Affairs, Defence and Lauds under somewhat happier circumstances than lie bad experienced in bis previous tenure of office; but ho still was hampered, as Sir Robert Stout himself was, by the restrictions imposed upon a Coalition Government by its own composition. Notwithstanding this encumbrance, however, lie managed to lay the foundation of the land policy ho and John MacKenzie were to develop with such advantage to the country and its people four or live years later. it was from his native Ireland of course, that lie received his first impulse towards “ settlement, more settlement and still more settlement ” ; but it was to William Rolleston, as lie once confessed to me, that he received bis earliest inspiration towards the, systematic application of the popular slogan in this country. “Rolleston is a good man lost to Liberalism,” I observed somewhat inanely one day when we were looking over a “ village settlement ” together. “ Men like Rolleston aro never lost,” lie re torted, almost as if I bad aspersed our mutual friend. “ Rolleston blazed the track we all arc following. I take off my bat to him.” And lie did. THE MASTER HAND.

The overwhelming defeat of the fifth

Atkinson Ministry at the general election of 1890 brought to Mr Ballance his great opportunity. But it did not come immediately upon the conclusion of tbe polling. Tbe election took place early in December. Tbe result was obvious to everyone, save, perhaps, to tho members of the Cabinet, who did not submit their resignations to the Governor until the last week in January. Menmvhile his Excellency had been persuaded that tbe defeated Ministry was entitled to appoint seven life members to tbe Legislative Council. One would not like to recall what he may have said himself on that occasion, when party feeling ran very high ; but it is due to the Liberal leader to mention that all through tbe heated controversy lie bore himself with the dignity and propriety expocted from liis Excellency’s advisers. Added to the appointment of the seven Conservative Councillors at tin’s juncture, after . their patrons had lost tho confidence of tho electors, the Governor demurred over the appointment of twelve Liberal Councillors. As to this development, th© opinion of “ New Zealand Rulers,” may be quoted without invoking any party feeling. “The Governor,” Mr Gisborne states, “had been advised, for certain political reasons, which need not be discussed here,.to appoint to tbe Legislative Council twelve new Councillors, but hesitated to appoint them. That hesitation may or may not have been justifiable, but certainly it was not justifiable on the part of Lord Onslow, who knew of tbe circumstances, to leave tbe decision to bis successor, who necessarily knew nothing about them.” The question was finally settled by the somewhat perilous means —from a constitutional point of view—of referring it to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who promptly decided in favour of tbe New Zenlnnd Government, and the twelve nominees took their seats. Again Mr Ballance was applauded rather for bis bearing than for his success. HIS ACHIEVEMENTS.

, Though lie lived practically only two > I years after his accession to the Prem- > | iersliip, Mr Ballance crowded into [ | those twenty-four months, in well ordered sequence, the foundations or the completed structures of a number of measures upon which lie had spent half a lifetime in preparation. To cover the ground he traversed in a sketch of this kind is impossible, but an old colleague of those far away days has compressed into his “Long White Cloud” a paragraph, not too laudatory, that (will convey some idea of the manlier and tile resources of the man. “A kind, courteous, considerate chief, alwnys ready to listen,” lie writes, “he was regarded by most of those around him with a feeling of personal friendship, in some eases amounting to affection. So, in spite of his gentle liearing, lie usually had his way when he wished to have it. His judgment and gift of conciliation attracted arid united his party. He was careful in appointing men, even to tlie Legislative Council.

Superior to personal vanity, he was the least jealous of chiefs and tried to gather strong men around him. As for his political courage, it is only necessary to point to tTie measures brought in by his Government in 1891 and 1892, tor all of which ho was as Premier responsible,' and some of the most important were his own.” The happiest observation in Mr Reeves’s restrained eulogy of his former chief, and the most characteristic, is the allusion to the legislative Council. Probably never before had there been a batch of appointments to the “reviving chamber” so fully justified ns was the one Mr Bajlance selected himself and insisted upon being appointed. For a decade they constituted the brains and enthusiasm of the chamber, and no doubt the leader of the Council would welcome a similar invasion today.

APPRECIATION OF AN OPPONENT. Two active years in Parliament which had impressed the Opposition with the fact that Mr Ballance was neither a political weakling nor a socialistic adventurer, as some of its members had imagined, won many personal friends for Mr Ballance on the other side of the House. His word was trusted, his views were regarded as sincere and his promises were accepted at their face value. Conservatives mourned as sincerely over his passing as did his political friends, ft was left to Sir William Russell to bear testimony to the qualities of bis opponent. “There was never a more painstaking, thoughtful or industrious man,” said the "leader of the Opposition. “He performed his duties, not perfunctorily or by mere Regulations, but conscientiously and with consideration. He was earnest in the extreme and never negleeed a detail, whilst at the same time be worked upon principles which held firmly those Who had occasion to meet him. Those who served him were always impressed by his force, his acuteness and his wonderful grasp alike of details and of generalities. He was an educated man in the true sense of the term, a man of vast reading and extraordinary mental digestive organs. As a political opponent he was a very model of courtesy and chivalry. There was no rancour in him. He boro no malice, and harboured none of the grudges that sometimes disfigure political life. Nothing, to my mind, shows the calibre of the man so clearly a.a the fact made so manifest of late, that his success exceeded the most sanguine expectations of his friends and completely surprised his opponents. 1 call them opponents because of enemies he had none.” It was a fine tribute from a chivalrous politician to his strenuous opponent, and did as much honour to the speaker as it did to the dead.