WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 December 1921, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

SIR JOSEPH WARD. NOT DISCUSSING POLITICS. , - (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Dec. 12. Sir Joseph Ward, who has been spending a few days in Wellington, ati tending to a number of business mat- , ters wholly unconnected with politics, . chatted very interestingly this morning on various subjects of public interest. : He made it understood plainly that he s did not wish to discuss party politics ■ just now. It might be gathered from , a word he let drop Jure and there tha4 i bis experience in the National Cabinei had left him with no illusions concern- , ing non-party but such re- , ferences as he made to the past were of a purely impersonal character. A* the moment the Irish question seeme* [ to be concerning him more than any i thing else in the world’s politics. He took an optimistic view pf the position, , believing that the inherent good sense of the Irish people would assert itself in the last resort, but he did not prei tend to be quite free (froip anxiety. He pinned his faith mainly to Mr; Collin's, i whom he described as the strong man in the Sinn Fein movement and easily its wisest counsellor. Mr. De Valera was ■ scholarly, personally attractive and en- , thusiastic, but he lacked the force and , balance of his colleague, who command- ‘ ed the confidence of four-fifths of his s countrymen. THE BURDEN OF EMPIRE. While recognising that there are grave difficulties before New Zealand, Sir Joseph thinks they are not to be compared with those thkt confront the Mother Country. A satisfactory settlement of the Irish question—a settlement that is along the lines of the one agreed to at the Conference—would do much to clear the way for Mr. Lloyd George and his colleagues, it would, indeed, remove t,he chief peril from their path; but many other great problems, more or less closely associated with the war, would remain for solution. Saeh difficulties as are testing the recuperative powers of the Dominion are taxing the resources* of the Motherland to a much larger extent. She has unemployment, slackness in trade, financial stringency and a score of other troubles the outlying portions of the Empire share with her. But she has, in addition to all these, great national responsibilitiea, in Europe, in India, in the Near East, in the Far East, and smaller ones in nearly every part of the world. Realising all this, as he was able to do during his sojourn in the heart of the Empire, Sir Joseph would put it to New Zealanders that they -should be a little less impatient than they sometimes have appeared to be of the Imperial Government’s inability to accede promptly to all their suggestions. ‘ THE DOMINION’S OUTLOOK. Sir Joseph's polite refusal to discuss New Zealand politics was quite final and there was no by-path by which he could be led up to the subject; but he expressed himself as much gratified by the appearance of such parts of the country as he had seen since his return to the Dominion. The harvest in the South promised to be an abundant one and the reports he Lad received from his own district suggested it was particularly favored in this respect. Had the good prices of two years ago been maintained New Zealand might have faced its financial difficulties with a light heart. As it was, it could extract a good deal of comfort from the seasonable evidence of the productivity of its soil and the magnif nee of its climate. Prices, he was afraid, were not going to return to their former level for a year or two. The wool market had impoved to some extent, and this was a matter for congratulation, but till the purchasing power of Britain and Europe were restored the recovery necessarily would be slow. Meat might get back to the old conditions earlier, but the questions of freight and marketing would require attention and quality would have to be jealously maintained. He hoped Canterbury and Otago, perhaps 1 with additional assistance from parts of the North Island, would again make the Dominion independent of outside wheat supplies, and that close settlement and intensive cultivation would win for it a still higher place among the dairying and fruit-growing countries.

* ■' PERSONAL. Turning in lighter vein to personal matters, Sir Joseph said that his loss of some superfluous flesh had- led many of his friends to assume he was in illhealth, or at any rate, had passed through a severe illness. But, as a matter of fact, he never in his life had felt fitter than he did at the present time. Some months before he left London he consulted a specialist in regard to a digestion trouble from which he had been suffering for some years. He was first starved, then dieted and finally given a clean bill of health in every respect with the knowledge of. how to look after himself. It was simple, if somewhat tiresome treatment, but the result had exceeded his most sanguine expectations. Sir Joseph's overflowing energy, physical and mental, bear unmistakable evidence to his improved health, and, though his personal aspirations do not appear to lie in that direction, it will be strange if sooner or later he is not drawn back into the public life of the Dominion.