SIR JOSEPH WARD IN THE OLD COUNTRY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8438, 9 May 1907, Page 7

SIR JOSEPH WARD IN THE OLD COUNTRY.

(From Our London Correspondent.) LONDON, March 29. Many and varied are the engagements of your Premier over here, and for once in its lite the Hotel Cecil is giving rest and entertainment to one of the most hardly worked men of modern times. Of the appreciation by Fleet Street, and the public, it is enough to say that his doings are being chronicled by many of the leading dailies, and his ideas discussed, while his portrait has appeared in sprie dailies and most of the Sunday "^papers. A few days back, he and Lidy Ward, Mr Cyril Ward, and Miss Ward, with Mr J. Augustine Mason.. the Private Secretary of the High Commissioner, as guide, philosopher and friend, motored down to the Crystal Palace and dined there. Sir Joseph Ward and family spent the second night of their arrival in London at the club rooms of the New Zealand Association, and took part in a whist-drive organized for the occasion. Unfortunately, I was speeding at the rate of 60 miles an hour in another part of England at the time, and was unable to be present, and lam indebted to the columns of a contemporary for the particulars. Over 60 New Zealanders and friends were present, about 30 of whom attended the house dinner held by the Association Jin one of the smaller rooms at the Westminster Palace Hotel. Mr J. K. Logan, of the New Zealand Telegraph Department, presided at the dinner. At 8.30 an adjournment was made to,the Association's rooms in the same building, and the company sat down to whist, 15 tables being occupied. The first prize for ladies, a silver hand-mirror, was won by Mrs M. G. Heeles, and the second prize, a silverbacked hair brush, by Mrs Pember Reeves. Mr B. Spiller won the gentleman's prize, a silver inkbottle, beating Dr. Fitchett by a point. The prizes were presented to the winners by Sir Joseph Ward, who in a happily-worded little speech expressed his pleasure at spending so agreeable an evening amongst his fellow-colonists. Altogether the gathering was a great success, and is likely to result in a further accession of members of both sexes to the New Zealand Association. Amongst those present, in addition to the Premier and his wife and daughter aid Mr Cyril Ward, were:—Mrs W. P. Reeves and Miss Reeve?,Dr T.W. Parkinson, Chairman of the Association, Mr and Mrs C. W. Pallister and Miss Pallister, Dr. and Mrs Fitchett, Mr and Mrs W. C. Robinson, Miss Ethel Heywood,'Mrs Lasceilea, Mr J. Sutherland Ross, Mr and Mrs Cowern, Mr H. Lees, Mrs SethSmith, Mr and Mrs Witt and the Misses Witt, Mrs London, Mr H. H. Wall, Mr and Mrs J. A. Mason, Mr A. S. Cook, Miss Hitchings, Mrs Hale and Mr C. Hale, Mr Nuding, Mr and Mrs Duvernet, Mr R. F. Jackman, Mr A. L. Freeman, Mr R. F. Dickinson, Mr J. K. Campbell, Mr Eiy, Mr D. H. Pope, Mr Bush, Mr Tillman and Mr Parfitt. One of our leading evening dailies waxes facetious over the words and works of Sir Joseph Ward in the following words:—"From all that people in this country can judge of Sir Joseph Ward, from his utterances since his arrival among us, New Zealand seems to have secured in the late Mr Seddon's successor a real Richard 11. He has the same strong looking type of physique as his predecessor, and he seems to be amply endowed with the same sturdy faith and confidence in New Zealand, the Empire and himself. Incidentally it may be added that only a man who believes in the strenuous life would saddle himself with the accumulated responsiblities that weigh upon Sir Joseph Ward. He is probably the greatest pluralist in hard-worked Ministerial office in the British or other Dominions. Besides being Premier, he is Minister of Railways and Telegraphs, Minister of Commerce and Industry, PostmasterGeneral, and Colonial Secretary. If he only draws one salary for so many offices, it is difficult to understand how in a trade union country like New Zealand he escapes being denounced for a blackleg."