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Sir Joseph George, Bart Ward

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"SIR JOSEPH GEORGE WARD, Bart. (1857-), New Zealand statesman, son of Thomas Ward, merchant, was born at Emerald Hill, Melbourne, April 26 1857, and was privately educated in Melbourne and at the state school, Bluff, N.Z. His first employment in New Zealand was as a boy of 13 in the department over which he was afterwards to preside as PostmasterGeneral with conspicuous success for more than 20 years. At the age of 21 he started business on his own account as a produce merchant, and began a connexion with municipal politics which lasted many years. He entered Parliament as Liberal member for Awarua in 1887, and retained the seat for more than 30 years. On the formation of the Ballance Ministry in 1891 he joined it as Postmaster-General, and filled the same office in successive Liberal administrations until 1912, and afterwards for four years in the National Government (1915-9). The value of his energy and enterprise in this capacity was acknowledged even by his opponents. In 1901 the success of his efforts to give New Zealand penny postage was rewarded by his being made a K.C.M.G., and at various postal conferences he distinguished himself by his pioneer advocacy of an All-Red Cable service and universal penny postage. In the Seddon Government he held other important portfolios, which included those of Colonial Treasurer and Minister of Railways, and his appointment as Minister of Public Health (Nov. 8 1900) is believed to have been the first such appointment in the world.

After Seddon's death, Sir Joseph Ward, who had on several occasions filled the position of Acting Premier during his late leader's absence from New Zealand, succeeded to the Premiership Aug. 6 1906 and held it till his resignation March 28 1912. (For his principal achievements in that capacity, the gift of a battle-cruiser to Great Britain and the institution of compulsory military training, see New Zealand.) After acting as leader of the opposition till Aug. 1915 Sir J. G. `' y ard joined with Mr. Massey, the Reform party's leader, then Prime Minister, in forming the National Government, in which the Reform and the Liberal parties were equally represented in order to avoid party strife for the period of the war. In the National Government thus established Sir J. G. Ward's principal office was that of Finance Minister. With Mr. Massey he went to London to represent New Zealand at the Imperial War Cabinet and War Conference meetings of 1917 and 1918; and he also attended the Peace Conference at Paris in 1919 as a member of the British Empire delegation. Shortly after his return with Mr. Massey from Paris Sir J. G. Ward dissolved the coalition by resigning his place in the National Government (Aug. 22 1919), and at the general election at the end of the year his party was defeated and he himself lost his seat. His own defeat was due in part to a sectarian agitation directed against him on the ground of his alleged bias as a Roman Catholic in favour of those of his own faith.

In addition to the occasions already mentioned Sir J. G. Ward represented the Dominion at the Imperial Conferences of 1907, 1909 (Defence) and 1911. At the 1909 Conference he strongly supported the ideal of an undivided Imperial navy. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1906, and received a baronetcy in 1911. During his various Imperial missions he received the freedom of London, Edinburgh and other British cities, and the hon. degree of LL.D. from the universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh and Trinity College, Dublin. He married in 1883 Theresa Dorothea de Smith (C.B.E. 1919), and had a family of four sons and one daughter.