Forty Years a Liberal

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 626, 1 April 1929, Page 2

Forty Years a Liberal

LIFE STORY OF SIR JOSEPH WARD From Telegraph Messenger to Prime Minister

By

K. A. LOUGHNAN

(Copyright—Sun Feature Service) ENT SUING Parliament in ISS7, Sir Joseph Ward is a veteran among contemporary statesmen and his career is traced and described in Ilii< series of articles by R. \ Louglinan for readers of The Sun. No. Vl[.

“An important Bill for half-past eevea! Only that, and nothing more! “The House adjourns. The members go out, eager. The galleries empty with feverish rapidity. Talk of coins and currencies, banks and booms, passes round In a torrent of gossip, throwing up the foam of financial omniscience as of wizards of finance. TWILIGHT BRINGS TENSION The fall of night finds the galleries full of fluttering humanity; every member in his place. The tension grows—the all-important Bill is not ready. The tension increases. The Minister appeals to the impatient with the plea for a delay of half an hour or so to enable members, to read the Bill when It does emerge from the printer. The plea has a soothing effect. The half hour goes by quickly; the Bill is in evidence everywhere. The Treasurer rises. He is greeted with a sigh of relief. The Standing Orders are suspended, the way is clear, at half-past eight the Treasurer moves the second reading of the fateful Bill, getting a great reception. “He plunges,” says the "New Zealand Times,” “straight into his subject. No hesitations, no diplomacy, no hedging. The speech is of a man who knows the grave importance of his subject, and has made up his mind what to do and what to say. He says it cogently, emphatically, rapidly. It is a perfect spate of words all bearing on the point, carrying the subject along upon a flood of reasons. Past all the landmarks he goes, past the confidential officer of the hank with his letter, past the terrible responsibilities of the matter, past the gravity of the situation, without a break, past the terribly wide ramifications of the enormous business of the bank, on which he pauses to bring out the details—a scientific pause it is—as he hurries along again to see the resources of the bank, assets, liabilities. balances, necessities. He assures the House of the imperative necessity of the case. He warns the House that delay will be fatal —and he has done.” This sketch impressively gives us the man ner of the Treasurer's speech. A GREAT SPEECH To realise the matter of it one must road* the Hansard report of it. Then one sees that it was a, great speech, worth}’ of a great occasion. It began by urging the gravity of the occasion, stressing the need for immediately giving the struggling bank a State guarantee of two millions. This not merely for safeguarding its position —that would not free it from its grave difficulties —hut also for giving it further capital to improve that position. The help must be adequate, the Treasurer insisted; a control must be established to prevent a recurrence of such disaster, and the help must not Involve any danger of calling on the taxpayer at any stage. The lines of this were firmly sketched. The numerous accounts of the bank, the wide reach of its transactions followed, showing the scope of the ruin sure to follow on the bank's collapse—and all the hearers remembered that without help to-day the bank's doors would close to-morrow —and this thrilling procession of facts was 1 closed with the statement of the large sum of Government inoueys—aggre- 1 gating two millions —in the hands of the bank, all in deadly peril. This completed the appeal to the State to do its plain duty to a vast body of interests vital to its safety. An appeal of stern facts, marshalled with masterly skill, supported by outline of measures protecting the taxpayer from any danger or loss. FINANCIAL SAFEGUARDS The climax led up to so carefully and convincingly came in the reading of the urgent letter of “a banker of 45 years’ standing, 30 of them in New Zealand.” The name was not given, hut no one had any doubt of the identity. The letter was brief. It was in four paragraphs: (1) The occasion is one of the gravest public concern. (21 By the means proposed I am absolutely convinced that the State will not lose one penny, but will on the contrary avert general loss to itself as well as to the community. (3) By this means The banking affairs of this country will be placed on a greatly improved footing for the future. (41 If the/Government finally determines to go on with the measure it should be put through to-day. This was the letter often referred to —in the strenuous days that followed in discussing the legislative and financial safeguards of the policy adopted —“as a pistol held to the head of the Government.” But whatever it may be called, the letter was a correct summary of the dreadful position. The Treasurer’s comment, in his peroration is the best answer. We are, he said, proposing a “bold course, a strong course, the only possible course.” The Leader of the Opposition, Captain Russell, followed, and with a fine touch of responsibility and grave common sense. He would like more information. He feared taxation as the result of this. A committee would be the right thing. But he trusts the Government. He prefers the responsibility of two millions to the responsibility of causing a great public disaster. Breathless attention of the crowded House and galleries followed all this. It accompanied the few speakers, who all supported the measure, some with Sir Robert Stout emphatically repudiating the previous suggestion of Captain Russell for a committee. The Bill, the Standing Orders having been suspended, passed through all stages. IN THE COUNCIL The Council gave it similar reception, with speeches in some cases

I longer and with deeper financial , i nuirv - Th( ;- V the very kind « I speeches to he expected from a Cha-r her whose position is mainly of revk ion. preserving due respect to the da ' sion of the representatives of Ta ! people. In this tremendous criai,’ ! the Council was true to its constit,, j tional type. utu ' A strong contingent from the Lo*. 1 House was in the gallery watching tk, ■ proceedings with interest, quickened by an uneasy feeling that the CourJ I might turn the Kill down. The iof course, proved groundless hut tV average of its speeches that ni h, greatly raised the respect of the ren resentative chamber and of the publi for that much criticised institution the Legislative Council. TREASURER MAKES HIS NAME The night had reached the snuui hours when the Bill had gone through all stages in the Council, and received promptly the assent of his Excellence the Governor. Thus in one memor able day was the greatest crisis in the financial history of New Zealand dealt with. One of the consequences of that day’s storm and strife was increased reputation for the Colonial Treasurer. All men agreed that he had risen well to the occasion, with development of considerable financial ability. The Cabinet, as. of course, all knew, had made the momentous deei sion and formulated the measure in what may he called record time. But all knew also that Mr. Ward held the finance portfolio and must be regarded as the leader in the great episode. During this and the following year much attention was given by the Government and Legislature to the affairs of the Bank of New Zealand with the help of leading financial evperts working on committees. Many details were the outcome, and the famous “Globo Assets” institution was established for nursing the assets the hank had acquired as securities, to final successful realisation. In all these proceedings the Treasurer took a prominent part. And it is right to add that the Prime Minister, the Hon. R. J. Seddon, took a strong part, greatly to the astonishment of many men of financial leading, whom he amazed by his grasp of the matters of business under consideration. SUCCESS OF THE BANK There are disputes to-day as to whether the Government might not have averted the great crisis of IS9I, in some other way than it did. But in the dealing with accomplished facts academic alternatives that might have been have no place. Tho facts are that the legislation that helped the bank has proved strikingly successful, and so far from costing the taxpayer a penny has saved him much by (1) giving him an income of something approaching half a millifto of taxation, and (2) a substantial share in the profits annually made by the Bank of New Zealand. For Sir Joseph Ward there emerges from this collection of facts the fact that this was the first of the schemes he was responsible for as Treasurer in which he promised reasonable prospect of success without costing the taxpayer a single penny. Nor is it the only successful promise he has made of that kind. Therefore when he accompanies any’ great financial scheme of his with that promise, he is entitled to w hatever credit may belong to past performances. He has. in fact, a reputation that rests on a solid basis of fact. SESSIONS OF 1894 AND 1895 The Budgets of these years naturally claim first notice in the course of this political biography. The financial statement of the first of these years begins with a declaration somewhat remarkable of purpose. “It is the duty of the Treasurer,” writes Mr. Ward, “to state clearly, concisely and accurately what our position really is.” This is not, as might at first sight be supposed, a reflection ou any of his predecessors in office. Circumstances of the time lead to the conclusion that the Treasurer was answering criticism of his methods. There was plenty of it, and we frequently, in the records of the time, find him referring to it, answering it often, and not seldom complaining of its unfairness We know that by this time it had been intimated that he had manufactured surpluses by manipulating estimates. It seems that a long course of unfavourable balances had reduced some politicians of narrow intelligence to the belief that no Treasurer could produce a balance without in some way “cooking” his figures. If crib cisms of this kind are not to be noticed it is difficult to understand what drew from the Treasurer of 1894 this sirsoilar and apparently quite uncalled for declaration. Nobody expects the manager of a financial institution to open his annual report with the statement that he is not, and has new been a burglar.

PINPRICKS OF CRITICISM If a Colonial Treasurer reason for declaring for hones account of his stewardship, we nnjflook for the motive in the record; of the criticism 'directed against him. It is easy to accuse a Treasurer manufacturing a surplus, especiall- - revenues boom when they ha been expected to slump. It is an eaiway of scoring. We can only fl* pathise with a Treasurer who f ee himself forced to defend his posiueagainst assertions supported by reading of facts and figures. In history of New Zealand, a y°®_ country’ growing rapidly toward S'Jj® r.ess, there must be what the doctorcall “growing pains."' Now one these “growing pains” is a b 0 .0 17., ,: revenue which defies all the estim ■ of all financiers and students of P” tics. The growing pain is thus ® fested even in times of “slumps, is a sign of the vitality of the a . Some critics mistake it as a pf?® ts tion of the dishonesty of the ,n L " a . man of business —the Colonial . surer. Their criticisms at the and also at the worst are JU5t pricks. Whether Mr. Ward was in answering these pinpricks o may be an open question. But B ini a right to our sympathy when tn stick in his skin. (To be continued daily).