THE HON. J. G. WARD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 45, 9 November 1899, Page 28

THE HON. J. G. WARD.

The Hon. J G. Ward arrived in Dunedin on Thursday evening last after a brief visit to the Home country. On alighting from the express he was welcomed by representatives of the Otago Assembly of Knights of Labour, Trades and Labour Council, the Workers' Political Committee, and Mr. J. A. Millar, M.H.R. Mr. John Lee called for three cheers • for the Hon. J. G. Ward, who is to be our future Colonial Treasurer,' the call being heartily responded to. Mr. Ward was then conduoted to the steps on the Cumberland street side of the railway overbiidge, where he was presented with an address by the Knights of Labour. Mr. Ward, in replying, 6aid he was not going to refer to the past that night further than to say that he felt very bitterly and keenly that he had not received that ordinary fair play that Britishers generally extend to Britishers, so far as his personal, affairs were concerned. He recognised that that was owing to a large extent to his political principles. In the eyes of some people he was a man who ought to be got rid of, and they did all they could to hunt him out of political life. But those who tried to do that mistook, the hearts and feelings of the people of New Zealand. They mistook the hearts of the people of the place that he had been brought up in from his childhood. There were some people now who were animated by what he might term a peculiar kind of curiosity with regard to him. Some of them were anxious to know ' However has Ward done it? 1 Only that day he read, coming down in the train, a suggestion that he had been the happy investor of a large number of New Zealand Consols, out of which he had made a large sum of money, and met his obligations in England. He did not intend to go into his private affairs any more than the circumstances warranted, but be might tell them that he had never invested in a New Zealand security at any time. The innuendo to which he had referred was absolutely groundless. He had been able, by the use of his brains, in conjunction with men of the highest standing and integrity, to make sufficient money to pay off those men in England who were unjustly deprived of their rights in connection with the business with which he was associated. When he was forced into the Insolvency Court he was stripped of everything that he possessed. He had not a £50 note, but within three months he was offered £18,600 by different friends throughout New Zealand. He, however, would not then take the money, but later on, when he required to get his own estate out of the clutches of the people in whose hands it was, the same persons who had before offered to assist him came forward voluntarily and gave him £6000 to do what he liked with. Since then he had been able to repay them this £6000. He knew of his own knowledge men who had been busy in connection with his affairs, and who had gone into them, and although hostile to him at the time, they now thought his business ought never to have been put do-wn. He, however, felt a great deal happier than some of the men who thought it necessary to wipe him out politically. During his absence from this country he had had the pleasure of meeting many leading men in England and Australia, and it had been more than gratifying to him to find himself cordially received by leading men in other countries. Mr. Ward, in concluding, expressed his pleasure at being back here, and thanked the Knights of Labour for their kindly reception of him, and also for their address.