SIR JOSEPH WARD

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10595, 29 March 1912, Page 5

SIR JOSEPH WARD

MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE.

j (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Last Night. The Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) has delivered the 'ollovnhg I message on his retirement : "Fallow Citizens.—To-day I lay down the duties and burden t.f the' leadership of the Liberal party. I assumed it nearly six years ago, not without many misgivings that I could not maintain that unrivalled public record which the late Mr Seddon closed by tfeath, in tireless devotion to the r land...anid people he-loved so well. As ; a sftate&man amd leader he left be■liincl him, no equal; jience it was inevitable that I should suffer as his sucI cesser by contrasts and comparisons, 1 which sftibwed his superiority. Wihatf ever may be the world's measure, a j man's, measure of his own, achiever ments turns mainly upon, whether he J.has done his best; and whatever iny j shortcoming!} have been; I feel that I. cannot unfairly claim to have used such nihilities as 1 posise&s as well as I could, and jas indusitriosury as 'I emild, in the service of this country and the promotion of what I con>- ) ceived to be the best interests- of the: 1 great mass, of my countryinesn.. It is K' quarter of a century since I was elected a. mcn-Jber of Parliament, and I becarine a Minister of the Crown, 1 over 21 years ago. 1 re-cognise that it is given to but few men to hold Min- ! isterial office for so long a ft'™ o ? and .while I have never, where justice and :the general welfare <:£ t.h people demanded it, hesitated to limit or resist sectional or class enemies without always .securing a corresponding support of the crro.it mass of the comnnmityi'foT whose welfare I was stri--yfng. The most disheartening exper•iance cf lead-er-shiip is that while the classes of privilege and monopoly and often eeffctively attack a man for all invasions- of their in- ' ter.ests in the cause oif the common weal, the great hulk of the people he is seekring ?o benefit not infrequently regard his efforts with apathy and indifference. And so to-day, on taking leave of the leadership and of all ,prespect of other Ministerial office, I am fuKy justified in. saving that what hte incited against me the* bitterness, misrepresentation and abuse poured upon me so overwhelmingly at the last* election,'was mainly the- uncompromising attitude i have always taken towards the forces of conservatism, monopoly and privilege wßien and where I have honestly felt it was my duty to do #0 in. the public interest. (Sir Joseph Wind concludes, a (lengthy massage by stating that he will strive ais a private member to assist hi the fullest degree the party to which he has so long 'belonged.)