Joseph Ward

Politician

• Born: April 26, 1856
• Birthplace: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
• Died: July 8, 1930
• Place of death: Wellington, New Zealand

Also known as: Joseph George Ward

Significance: Joseph Ward was prime minister of New Zealand twice, serving from 1906 to 1912 and from 1928 to 1930. A member of Parliament for thirty-seven years and cabinet member in several Liberal governments, he promoted economic development and social welfare.

Background

Joseph Ward was born on April 26, 1856, in Melbourne, Victoria, to William Thomas Ward and Hannah Ward, who had arrived in Australia from Ireland. Ward’s father, an alcoholic, died when he was four. One of ten children, Ward and two siblings were the only surviving children by 1861. Ward’s mother, who managed a liquor store, married John Barron in 1862. They separated within a year.

Ward began his schooling at Springs Academy, a Catholic school in North Melbourne, in 1862. The next year, the family moved to New Zealand and settled in Bluff (officially known as Campbelltown until 1917), where his mother operated a boarding house. He attended Campbelltown State School until he was thirteen, then left to earn money for the family. He worked as a delivery boy at the Bluff post office from 1869 to 1871, as a clerk at the town’s general store until 1876, and as the chief clerk at the Public Works Department until 1877 or 1878. By this time, his mother had converted the boarding house to a hotel and was financially stable. She provided a substantial loan to her son and Ward embarked on a career as a grain merchant and exporter. He set up grain storage facilities in Bluff in 1877 before moving his headquarters to Invercargill a few years later, and his business, J. G. Ward and Company, prospered.

Political Career

Ward first entered politics at the local level. He was elected to the Bluff Borough Council in 1878 at the age of twenty-one. In 1881 he joined the Bluff Harbour Board and served as its chair from 1882 to 1887. From 1882 to 1886 and 1897 to 1898, he was mayor of Bluff.

Ward moved to national politics in 1887 when he was elected to Parliament for Awarua. He quickly earned a reputation for his financial and technological expertise. After the Liberal Party gained the government in 1891, John Ballance appointed Ward commissioner of electric and telegraphs and postmaster general. He served in the latter post for twenty-three years. Richard John Seddon succeeded Ballance in 1893 and named Ward the minister of finance the same year.

Ward continued to work on his private commercial ventures while serving as postmaster and treasurer and in 1891 founded Ocean Beach Freezing Works. Within a few years, some of his businesses were in financial straits. As members of Parliament could not file for bankruptcy, Ward resigned from Parliament and his ministries in 1896 and filed for bankruptcy the next year. He then ran for reelection in a by-election in 1897 and was returned to Parliament. In 1899, he became Seddon’s deputy prime minister and returned to his cabinet as postmaster general, colonial secretary, and minister of industries and commerce. The portfolios of public health and railways soon followed. By this time, Ward’s bankruptcy had been discharged and he had repaid his creditors.

Ward’s achievements as the postmaster general included the introduction of the penny postage for letters (1901) and the reduction of telegraph costs. As the minister of railways, he reduced passenger fares (1900); oversaw the completion of the North Island main trunk line (1908); sponsored legislation that established the Railways Superannuation Fund (1902), a retirement plan for railroad employees; and worked to semi-nationalize the country’s railways. His achievements as treasurer included sponsoring legislation for the Government Advances to Settlers Act (1894), obtaining large floating loans from London banks to fund social welfare initiatives (1894), and the creation of the Government Department of Tourist and Health Resorts. For public health, he passed the Bubonic Plague Prevention Bill in 1901, which gave the federal government sweeping powers not held by the Department of Health. This led to the passage of the Public Health Bill (1901), which created the world’s first ministry of public health. Ward had public maternity hospitals built, institutionalized midwife certification, and implemented policies to improve sanitation and public health.

Seddon died in office in June 1906, and on August 6, 1906, Ward became prime minister. Under his leadership the Liberal Party won the 1908 election, but support for his centrist policies began to decline. His primary achievements in his first stint as prime minister were sponsoring the Defence Act (1910), the National Provident Fund (1910), and the Widows Pension Act (1911). Ward served until March 28, 1912, when he resigned after the Liberals gained only a slight majority in the elections. He was succeeded by Thomas Mackenzie.

In 1915, Ward led the Liberals in a coalition with the Reform government of William Ferguson Massey. Serving as minister of finance and postmaster general, he gained a reputation for acting as co-prime minister with Massey. Ward withdrew from the Liberal Party in 1919 and lost his seat in Parliament that same year.

Ward was reelected to Parliament in 1925, this time as the representative for Invercargill. In 1928, the Liberal Party reconstituted itself as the United Party and elected Ward its leader. Following the November 1928 election in which the United Party won twenty-seven seats to Reform’s twenty-eight seats, Reform leader Gordon Coates lost a no-confidence motion in Parliament and Ward became prime minister again. He took office on December 10, 1928.

Ill health plagued Ward during his second term as prime minister. Following several heart attacks, he resigned on May 15, 1930. He was succeeded by George William Forbes. On July 8, 1930, Ward died in Wellington, New Zealand.

Impact

Ward is remembered for his deep influence on New Zealand politics in the early twentieth century, as well as his unlikely return to prominence in the late 1920s. A centrist, he advocated for state action to promote national development while recognizing the role of private enterprise in that development. Despite his well known fondness for the aristocracy and royal titles—he was knighted in 1901 and made a baron in 1911—he introduced wide-sweeping liberal policies and legislation that benefited the public.

Personal Life

Ward and Theresa Dorothea De Smidt married in 1883. They had four sons and a daughter.

Bibliography

Bassett, Michael. Sir Joseph Ward: A Political Biography. Auckland UP, 2013.

Bassett, Michael. “Ward, Joseph George.” Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, 1993. Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2w9/ward-joseph-george. Accessed 3 Apr. 2020.

Cowan, James. “Sir Joseph Ward: A Statesman of New Zealand and the Empire.” The New Zealand Railways Magazine, vol. 11, no. 2, 1936. Victoria University of Wellington, 2016, nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov11‗02Rail-t1-body-d6.html. Accessed 3 Apr. 2020.

“Joseph Ward, Cable Guy.” The Southland Times, 31 Jan. 2019. Pressreader, www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-southland-times/20190131/281681141107029. Accessed 3 Apr. 2020.

McLean, Gavin. “Joseph Ward.” New Zealand History, New Zealand Government, 8 Nov. 2017, nzhistory.govt.nz/people/sir-joseph-ward. Accessed 3 Apr. 2020.