Forty Years a Liberal

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 645, 23 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) ENTERING Parliament in ISS7, Sir Joseph %\ ard is a veteran among contemporary statesmen and his career is traced and described in this series of articles by It. A. Loughnan for readers of The Sun. No. XXVI.

Behind the illuminations and decor- j ations and noises there was ail historic j ceremony. The Executive Council had! met in one of the rooms half an hour ; before midnight, the Acting-Governor. 1 Sir James Preudergast, presiding, j The new postal regulations, necessary < to the momentous postal departure having been read and approved, the 1 Council took up the ceremonial part of the proceedings, adjourning to the large corridor, where the heads of the Government departments, and a large j number of the postal officials, were as- j sembled, under the presidency of the , vice-chairman of the Post and l olograph Officers* Association, Mr. A. C. Norris, the chairman, Mr. AV. Levy, being unavoidably absent. When all were assembled. Mr. Norris made tbe presentation arranged and prepared by tlie Service, to its honoured Postmaster-General. Sir Joseph Ward. It was a handsome gold medallion suitably inscribed. In presenting it, Mr. Norris said that when the idea was first mooted, it had been eagerly taken up by the whole service, and subscriptions had come in from every post office in New Zealand, from Bluff to the North Cape. With the medallion was a splendid illuminated address commemorative of the occasion, the greatest in the history of the New Zealand Post Office, tne document recording the very wide subscriptions which had brought it into existence. A MARK IN HISTORY When the vigorous cheering subsided, the Postmaster-General replied with characteristic feeling and power. He declared the occasion great in the history of the colony and greater in the history of the Post Office of New Zealand. To be a member of the most Southern post office in the world which had given this great deed of postal reform was a great cause of pride to them, he said. To him who shared that pride with his comrades of the service they liad added the gratification of the very handsome present with which they had honoured the occasion; and the gratification would extend to all those who would be directly and indirectly affected by the reform. All New Zealanders would b» proud that their country had taken this great forward step, and they would not readily forget the demonstration of that day. For himself, he would always treasure the memory of the presentation by the officers of his department, as marking a most important epoch in the history of the Colony. This would, he predicted, be ail historical gathering. He briefly sketched the difficulties he had had to face in his effort to bring about this postal departure, efforts he had begun in the year 1891—as soon, therefore, as lie had received his first appointment as Postmaser-General. He said that the atep taken that day meant an immediate loss to the country of £30,000 a year, but he was not dismayed by the largeness of that sum, because he was convinced that the loss would be made up in a very few years. He felt sure, moreover, that, if that recovery did not come about, the increased convenience enjoyed by the users of the Post Office would entirely outweigh any loss the Colony might suffer in revenue. AUSTRALIA’S POLICY He concluded with a most interesting brief review of the postal services of the Continent of Europe and Great Britain —incidentally showing how deeply he had studied the subject in his preparatory period of propaganda. And he paid a high tribute to the work of Mr. Henniker Heaton. M.P.. the apostle of Postal Reform in the Old Country. Fie also spoke highly of the wise direction of postal affairs in New Zealand by Sir George Grey in the early days when population was small and scattered, and everything had to be improvised under a handicap of cash scarcity. Coming to Australia in his review, he regretted that great country’s inability to join them in this universal penny postage. But that was due not to unwillingness, for the statesmen of Australia liad expressed their approval of the penny post system, but to the fact that the States of Australia could not deal with the matter, the Commonwealth not having yet been established and inaugurated. He read the telegram he had received from the Hon. Sir Edmund Barton in reply to his request for co-operation in the universal penny post. “Reciprocate your good wishes and appreciate spirit of your offer. No Federal Postmaster-General at present, and no Federal Post Office for some time yet. Your present proposal therefore solely for separate States. Compliments of the season.” POSTAL CONCESSIONS This ended the formalities of the great occasion. Mv\ Ward, as Postmaster-General (appointed December 21, 1899) announced the event by cable all over the world. The coming of the event had been announced in the Budget of the Colonial Treasurer—the Hon. R J. Seddon—of August 1, 1900. “On and after January 1, 1901, a penny postage system will be established within and without the Colony.” He estimated the loss at £BO,OOO a year, declaring it would be but temporary and eventually -would add considerablv to the revenue. Mr. Ward was appointed Post--General on December 21 1899 before the Budget of 1900. Thus the honour of inaugurating the great reform and announcing it to the world came to Mr. Ward. It was generous and just of Mr. Seddon. As the years went by, concessions were added, with reductions to nrn papers and periodicals, postal packets and commercial paper, all insystlm S to tb C ° nVenience o£ the Postal sj stem to the users. Correspondence the 6 °P :Ilg . m thls way. the business of the people increased, commercial iiliTb nicreaseci - the exchange of ideas became greater. Above all, the Postmaster-Generals prediction was

verified. The £oo,i>oo loss of revenue was made up. profit replaced loss iu the working account, and the profits paid for further concessions. On the telegraph side ihe plan of reduction of charges was tried and became in the sixpenny telegram which replaced the shilling message of 12 words, a huge success. It maw be added here that, during the Great War. these cheapened charges were put an end to. But that was not a sign of any failure in the •system. The war decreased correspondence of all kinds, and money being required in increasing quantity for the public service, the Post Office had to be used as a taxing-machine. That was, of course, contrary to the basic principle of all postal systems as Sir Joseph Ward always declared throughout his penny post propaganda. But war is wav. After the war the penny post was restored and has sat islied all aspirations, predictions and requirements. It was according to the fitness of things that the honour of knighthood came to the Postmaster-General at the turn of the year, immediately he had set up the universal post in its high and conspicuous level. CONFERENCE AT ROME The Conference of ihe Postal Union, to be held at Horae in 1906. was universally expected to be very important. Men said it would make a great landmark in universal postal history. Sir Joseph Ward determined that, if he could manage it, that landmark should be universal penny postage, with all the nations of the world in enthusiastic accord. It was a bold game fo* the statesman of a remote country of less than a million people. All the more as tlie world had turned down his proposals * for reciprocal agreements for penny postage. Only ten small States had made unilateral agreement, and but one had by a bilateral agreement accepted universal penny postage. But Sir Joseph had in his hand (so he thought) a strong trump card. It was the great success of the universal penny post he had established five years before in his own land that was enough to give courage to his optimistic mind and rouse his resilient temperament. So he attended the Roman Conference of 1906 as Postmaster-General of New Zealand. It was an impressive gathering, and unique. Practically every nation and country in the world was represented. And every sign of goodwill, goodfellowship and good understanding was with them. If the gathering could be called motley the world Postal Union could be regarded as a real union of co-operators in a great work of civilisation, united in aim, and experienced in practice. With this thought in his brain. Sir Joseph sat at the great banquet given to the conference by the Postmaster-General of Italy, viewing the scene with hopeful enthusiasm. Here, as last, was the opportunity he had longed for ever since that memorable hour of 1891 —15 years back —in which he had obtained from his own Legislature the permission to go ahead with his scheme of universal penny post. With that permission he had conquered the difficulties in the way at home. What was there to prevent him conquering the difficulties abroad, stopping so many of the nations here represented on the way to the reform they approved in their hearts? True, it had taken him eight years to scatter the lions on the home path. But he could surely rely on the evidence of his own exploit to do that for his colleagues of the congressall men of goodwill and excellent understanding and much experience—here and now. A WARY ADVOCATE At the conference he bravely moved his motion for the adoption of the great reform, and made good use of the supporting facts of the New Zealand story. If ever optimism was justified his was on that day in the Conference of Rome. But he did not rely 011 optimism; and enthusiasm he allowed to colour his speech. But he moved with the cool wariness of the practised warrior. With great tact he avoided all appearance of offensive dictation; with much care he was smooth in his treatment of prejudice, which he never called by its name; moderate he Was in reasonably exploiting the verbal encouragement he had universally received; making the most of his large stock of favourable evidence, he formed it into a mighty lever of appeal, without a flaw in its aspect or a weak fibre iu its staple. He extended that appeal to all the best qualities of men —generosity* pride of race, humanitarianism, commercial eagerness, love of education, desire for comfort, friendship and the accord of nations; going even so fat as to speak of tbe great Postal Union as a very great factor in securing the permanent peace of the world. Needless to say, his financial demonstration was perfect. How much was lost at the outset in New Zealand six years ago—that £30,000 of his speech of the Post Office gathering on the night of the illuminated rejoicing and the handsome presentation —how much was recovered in the year ol growing revenue, backing this with the similar story of the reduction be made in ihe telegraph system—it was a complete presentment in the franc of France and in its equivalent in tbe sterling of the British Empire. His basic argument, that the Post Office ought not to be a taxing* machine, found him at his wariestThe fact that the Post Office was so used in some countries was obvious, but he did not say so. He merely* declared his belief that in such cases the statesmen were not responsible, as circumstances beyond their control had overwhelmed them. But New Zealand had blazed the trail through all troubles. He would rely on that evidence to encourage others to take that trail. (To be continued daily.) Copies of previous editions of N’L'.Y containing "The Life Story of Joseph 'Ward " may be obtained on ' | plication to the Publisher, THE B 0 I P.O. Box tiJO, Auckland.