THE WAR—AND AFTER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1807, 28 March 1918, Page 3

THE WAR—AND AFTER.

SIR JOSEPH WARD’S VIEWS. In the coui'se of his speech at the Commercial Travellers’ Club, at Wellington, Sir Joseph Ward said that, apart altogether from the provision of the millions of money Avhieh Avere required for the Avar, they all had to look to the aftermath of the Avar. They had to be ready with millions, and those millions were being invested for that purpose, and yet he heard people talking about using those millions for other purposes now. “They will not use them for other purposes Avhile I hold the position I am occupying noAv,” he said. (Applause). That money must he available to help New Zealand industrially, commercially, and socially upon the revolutionised basis Avhieh the Avar would bring to them Avhether they 4 liked it or not, and they had to' make up their minds as sensible people that they had to do the right thing and the fair thing for the Avorkers from end to end of Ncav Zealand. (Applause.) That tho Avorkers had helped enormously in Connection Avith the Avar was beyond question. They had to see that men who wanted to drag the Avorking men of this country along dangerous lines were not alloAved to drag them along dangerous lines. (Applause.) They had to see that in the new condition of tilings each grade of society, from the humblest to the highest, avus treated by Parliament and the people, through their party representatives, on a basis of justice and fairness and proper consideration. They had to inculcate in the minds of men in every position in life that Capital and Labour had to go hand in hand in the truest sense of the term, and they must not alloAv a system of trying (o cut the throat of one or to strengthen the other. Such a policy Avould be suicidal to the best interests of the Dominion’s future. When they got back their 100,000 men, he hoped they would soon return to (heir normal conditions, and help to so guide the destinies of the country as to make it easy to bear the enormous annual cost that would he,imposed—probably from six to seven millions in interest and sinking fund. If they made up their minds that the ordinary commerce of the country was to he developed three to five-fold, the number of men going on the land must he trebled. That could be com*. If (here had been one lesson more than another that had been the result of the Avar, it Avas the opening of the eyes of the people to the necessity of not fighting for trifles, hut for great principles and for the establishment of a jjoliey that avus going to make for the good of: every class in Ncav Zealand. He did not believe there avus a soul in Ncav Zealand avlio felt doAvnhearted in connection Avith the present crisis, because they were fully of the belief that all the men at the front Avere fully impressed AA’ith the enormous responsibility attaching to their Avork, and avc, on our part, needed to impress them with the realisation that the money required avus coining from the people spontaneously. We did not want to have to tell them that Ave had to make people do their duty.