Sir Joseph Ward

Sir Joseph Ward (1856–1930) was the leading political figure during the forty-year life of the Liberal Party in New Zealand. He was a member of Ballance's first Cabinet, twice Prime Minister (1906–12 and 1928–30), and was still a Cabinet Minister at the time of his death. This lively biography is the story of an ambitious first-generation New Zealander of Irish Catholic parents who spent more than half a century in local and central government politics, influencing the directions taken in many a