Forty Years a Liberal

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 620, 23 March 1929, Page 1

Forty Years a Liberal

LIFE STORY OF SIR JOSEPH WARD From Telegraph Messenger to Prime Minister ’ By R. A. I.OVGHNAN (Vopi'i'ighi- N:fti Feature Service) ENTERING Parliament in 1887, Sir Joseph Ward is a veteran among contemporary statesmen and his career is traced and described in this and sub.seqnent articles by TJ_ A. Loughnan for readers of The Sun. Mr. I.oujjhnan may bp called tlie dean of New Zealand journalists and one of The few whose work has kept him in contact with policies and public men for over half a century.

"V\7HERE was tlie "Liberal Party in the year of Grace 1878? The! question was being asked in that year, j Thoughtful people were prompted j thereto by the speeches of Sir • George Grey. in Parliament and j outside. more particularly outside. | for the ex-Pro-Consul bad a great i genius for the “stump." It was j not the soap box with which j the stump is to-day generally associ-, ated. Old Sir George did not kill ; grammar while he was slaughtering his political enemies. Nor did he l trample on rhetorical style when he made his enemies his footstool. His “stump'* was set up in the best halls, his campaign was conducted in choice language of Saxon simplicity j and strength. The current of his ora- ; tory flowed in placid warmth, carrying conviction on its smoothly flowing surface, dramatic with outbursts of controlled vibrant emotion, stirring hearers to wild enthusiasm. In his impetuous course he swept the historic past for warning by example; he threw his keen eyes far into the future, peopling the lands of to-mor-row- with the unborn millions of today; he pictured them dwelling happily with justice for their protector, freedom for their birthright, opportunity for their inheritance. His words flowed swiftly tnrough smiling regions basking on tlie Land of Plenty, beaui tiful with vines and fig trees cn | either hand, with lands everywhere 1 accessible easily to all, but barred firmly against wealthy monopoly and i speculative greed. Handsome towns, | well" built, slumless, were often in his ; words, and privileges of caste, pro- , fession and calling were to him abominable, and for ever to be kept out of the new earth he built as men build “castles in the air,*’ except that lie brought to his contemplation of bis ideals the determination to make them real. A STANDARD-BEARER That determination was his pa - sion; a grand ambition vaulting too vast for sound, necessary prei paration, and too high for thought of practical details. Nearly every one that heard him judged him in something of this doubtful fashion. But all saw in his propaganda the pith and j mat row' of Liberal principles. Admiration followed with Sir George Grey as the chief standard-bearer of Liberal- ! ism.

Half a century later there was one solitary answer to the Liberal roll(fall in the Plousc of Representatives. It reminded one public writer of the answer of Marshal Ney, commander of the rearguard of the Moscow retreat, which had all “gone west," when asked where was his command: “I am the rearguard.” The solitary

“Liberal” in the later time was Sir Joseph Ward. He had led the Liberal Party, valiantly; he had commanded it well in its prosperity, lie had done his best to keep up its courage in adversity. Men said, commenting on that representative call. “Here is the last of the Liberals,” a verdict as false as premature. Recent events have proved that the Liberal Party, by whatever name it may be called, is not a lost rearguard, but a young powerful fighting main force. Also that Sir Joseph Ward is that party's fighting chief. In the eye of imagination bent on the House of. Representatives to-day the pictures of the two Liberal chiefs stand over the Prime Minister’s seat looking into one another’s eyes across a gulf of 50 years. There are portraits of other chiefs, of course—but we are anticipating. BLIGHT OF PAROCHIALISM

When Grey was campaigning round the country and vigorously fighting his battle in Parliament, the political thought' of the country had declined from the high estate maintained by the pioneers, when they had started to make New Zealand great. Provincialism, as it had developed in the system of provincial government, had by the year 1870 so reduced the ideals of gov- ; ernmeut to a materialism of strug- j gling for loaves and fishes, as to make ! the Provincial Councils serious dangers to the public welfare. When j they were abolished in 1876, materialism did not disappear as was hoped by the successful supporters of the j abolition policy; for, unfortunately, in 1 some respects only, another powerf-il materialistic force had come to the j political front. This was tlie outcome of the great public works and immigration policy,? introduced by Sir 1 Julius Vogel in 1869, passed into law in 1870, and at once put into practice. Then the materialism due to the provincial system was increased by the new policy of progress. The general politics of the country were disturbed by the struggles of many districts for railways. With some exaggeration it was said that every member of the House of Representatives “wanted a railway to hi 3 own door.” To the political demoralisation due to the policy of progress there was added another demoralisation, the demoralisation of speculation stimulated by the temptation. areas of land offered at low upseca men K.een enough to the great addition of land values coming fast in the wake of the railway trains about to run all over the coun- ! tryside. The founder of the policy had, with creditable foresight, provided against this grave danger. Unfortun

ately Parliament, can* e«I away h* speculative urge, swept the safeguard! away. When the provinces were abol ished in 1876 the demoralisation o their log-rolling tactics of attack on ih« public purse passed away. But th< other tendency to materialistic demor alisation from the struggle for rail ways remained, to the disturbance o tlie pure political ideals which it* 7>ioneers had brought with them tcv the development of the country. This danger roused the Liber* spirit that had been deadened by tli« suddenly developed materialism. an« Sir George Grey sprang to the front holding aloft the Liberal standard. J party of Liberals gathered about him Stout. Ballance, Bryce were prominen names, and manhood suffrage, knowi as “one man. one vote.” was the mos prominent plank of their politic* platform. AN INSPIRING SPIRIT It was a very strenuous party, as was inevitable with the inspiring spirit o its great leader. Politics became ver> bitter, and there were many desperai* struggles. Eventually in 1879 ti ousted the Government of the pro gressive, abolition party, and Gre: after a wonderful campaign througl the country faced Parliament a; Prime Minister. He was strongly sup ported by his Cabinet, with Stout ane Ballance the prominent men ol mart therein. Unfortunately the talents which bac made Grey a wonderfully successfw Governor under the gravest difficuk ties were not the talent 3 required foi holding a representative Governmen together through its public-spirits course. Consequently the Grey Gov ernmeut collapsed. But it had no laboured in vain. Its successors fount themselves forced to “dish the Whigs' S (in Disraeli’s phrase) by adoptinf the policy of manhood suffrage am getting it through, the House on to th« : Statute Book. They also adopted then i educational planks and some others But lliey left their policy of taxation reform severely alone. THE OPPOSING CAMP In fairness io the other side it must be freely, tully and cheerfully ad mitted that some of their stalwart? had good land policies, and that thei worked hard for them, with Bcnse o; obligation to the great body of theii follow countrymen of New Zealand Chief of them Ware William Rollestoc and Donald Reid. Of the former ii cannot be forgotten that he was oft*?r called by appreciative friends whe knew his fine public history, “the lasi of tlie Romans.” Students of Romar history who know the story of th* i younger Cato, the famous champion of lost causes, will understand th* depth of the compliment paid to tb« last superintendent of Canterbury What his old province thought of him was seen in the great meeting in the Latimer Square of their chief city, a I which high eulogies were paid, togethei with a most, handsome presentation now an heirloom in his family, to tbp last superintendent, retired by the Abolition Act. If any possibility ol doubt on that score remained, tha speeches of high eulogy made on that memorable occasion by men of all sides of politics, with the applause of the multitude filling the specially-con-structed stand and swarming on the green sward arouud It, very effectually aud very warmly removed it.

VIOLENT CRITICISM

Of Donald Rei4 aud William Rollcston it was said in those days by the extreme Conservative people that they ought to be packed iuto a sack with Ballance and John Mackenzie ami Seddon and sunk under the waters of Cook Strait. Our eulogies of tlie later wider land reform which adopted many of their proposals of limited holdings and deferred payment on easy terms, must not. make us forget th« great work of these men. The fact that they, with their chief. Sir Harry Atkinson, judged by Liberal principles, were true Liberals, and were opposed to the men professing Liberal principles as the Liberal Party, shows more clearly than anything else in th® history of the country how the causes mentioned above had by this time had the effect of dividing politics into a strange confusion of political ramps. party lines were draw’n finely and followed w'ith beared discussion. But holding of principles common to both made confusion in the dividing elements. (To t>e continued on Monday)