Anne Ward (suffragist)

As a member of the Primitive Methodist church,[4] she was expected to take an active role in social outreach along with religious conversion efforts.[5] As part of a fundraising effort to support the women and children of soldiers away fighting in the Crimean War, a Ladies Charity Bazaar was held in the Athenaeum on 1 May 1855, and Mrs. Ward was listed as a stall holder.[6]

A year later, Dudley Ward became a Member of the House of Representatives in New Zealand's second parliament, serving for the Wellington Country electorate. They lived in a leased house in Thorndon Flat but within three years they had bought a house in Wellington Terrace. She grew ill. C.W. Richmond dined with the Wards in September 1857 and soon afterward wrote to his wife: "Mrs. Ward has been very pretty but looks exhausted by illness."[7] She was still sick months later: Judge Ward wrote to his colleague Sir John Hall in March 1858 to explain why he cannot come to Auckland, saying he was busy with district court dates but also "partly on account of Mrs. Ward's state of health, which is so precarious that I dare not leave the Province for any long period, which of course renders her completely unable to travel."[8] She might have had diabetes which could cause the early onset of glomerulonephritis (GN),[9] at the time called Bright's Disease and which eventually caused her death.

In 1860 she got the mumps from her husband. That same year Judge Ward's father, Sir Henry George Ward GCMG died, and they traveled to England, not returning until 1863. They then bought a house on a corner lot of Molesworth and Hawkestone Streets (very near the Parliament buildings today in Wellington).[1]^: 70 Judge Ward was appointed District Judge of a large circuit and was away often. They kept the house in Wellington when in 1868 they moved to Dunedin when Judge Ward was appointed Acting Judge of the Supreme Court.

When the Wards left Wellington in 1868, a local newspaper, The Independent, wrote: "Mrs. Ward's benevolence has been of the most active kind, and many a poor family will miss her when she is gone..."[10] She might have been the "Mrs. Ward" who collected a "large sum" for a Magdalen Refuge in 1867–1868.[11] This fundraising was part of the work by the Wellington Benevolent Society which had been active since 1867. This group typically offered funds or services for indigent immigrants, the elderly, ill or impoverished who had no family to take care of them.[12] Ward might have also been doing this work as part of her Primitive Methodist church outreach efforts. Besides organising soup kitchens or working with new immigrants, evangelist church work often included finding homes for single women seeking a way to earn a living other than prostitution.[13]

The Wards lived in Dunedin for only two years before moving to Hokitika for a year in 1870, then on the eastern coast of the South Island, living in Timaru where they lived in a large mansion 'Eversley' on Belfield Hill on North Street.[1]^: 151 The economic problems of the 1880s impacts the Judge's health in the early part of the decade, and he took Anne with him to spend a year at the Hot Springs at Waiwera, north of Auckland. By this point, the Judge had begun his love affair with the writer Frances Ellen "Thorpe" Talbot (1850–1923) and had bought a house for her in Dunedin.[1]^: 120

Sometime around 1884, the Wards moved to Burwood, a small rural community to the northeast of Christchurch, and according to the local gossip handed down to a local historian, they scarcely spoke to each other.[14] This did not stop her from taking a role in civic affairs.

The 1881 Licensing Act of New Zealand had made more consistent the local licensing committees and outlawed dancing girls in places where liquor was sold.[15] In April 1885, Anne Ward led a women's deputation – representing all the temperance societies of Christchurch – with the Rev R. Taylor to Sir Julius Vogel, Member of Parliament representing Christchurch North. They came to lobby Vogel to support women's suffrage in the debates over the local option – since "women were, in numberless instances, the greatest sufferers from the effects of the drink traffic..." and they hoped that Sir Julius Vogel would bring before Parliament that all married women might vote upon every question under the Licensing Act. She hoped also for a bill to do away with barmaids. "She had lived in hotels, and had seen the evils of the barmaid system."[16]

Ward organised the first national Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand meeting. The convention was held in Wellington in the Congregational Church, Woodward Street on 23 February 1886. Representatives included "Mrs. A. Dudley Ward, Provisional President, Christchurch; Mrs. A. Sinclair, Auckland; Mrs. F. Troy, Napier; Miss Sorley, Wanganui; Mrs. R. Hunter, Wellington; Mrs. J. Plimmer, Wellington; Mrs. C. A. Baker, Wellington; Mrs. Nightingale, Nelson; Mrs. E. E. Packe, Christchurch; Mrs. G. Clark, Christchurch; Mrs. Wroughton, Christchurch; Mrs. Rouse, Rangiora; Mrs. C. Fulton, Dunedin."[22] A telegram was read from the Oamaru Union, asking that a proxy be appointed to represent their Union.

The following officers for the coming year were elected by ballot: "Mrs. A. Dudley Ward, President; Miss Susan Brett, Corresponding Secretary; Mrs. Fanny Troy, Recording Secretary; Mrs. C. A. Baker, Treasurer. Following members were elected as Superintendents of Departments : Mrs. A. Dudley Ward, Evangelistic Work; Mrs. G. Clark, Legislation and Petitions [Franchise]; Mrs. Hinton, Social Purity; Mrs. May, Hygiene; Mrs. H. Snow, Influencing the Press; Mrs. E. E. Packe, Unfermented Wine; Mrs. C. Fulton, Juvenile Work; Mrs. J. Plimmer, Gaol Work; Miss Sorley, Young Women's Work; Mrs. Brame, Inebriate Home Work; Mrs. Paterson, Work among Young Women." Mrs. Wright of Wellington was appointed delegate to the New Zealand Temperance Alliance. An executive committee meeting at Ward's private residence at Molesworth Street on 26 February 1886. "Very grateful reference was made to Mrs. Mary Clement Leavett, as the founder of the Women's Christian Temperance Union in New Zealand, and testimony was given of her untiring labour of love in this Colony, which is already yielding and abundant harvest."[22]

The 1886 Minutes also reported that Anne Ward spoke at a meeting open to the public at St. John's Church Schoolroom on 24 February. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Ebenezer Baker, and besides Anne Ward, Mrs. Fulton, Mrs. Wroughton, and former premier and Member of Parliament Sir William Fox was seated on the platform. The Minutes provide excerpts from Ward's speech that night:

"Their [that of the WCTU NZ] great aim was to put down the drink, and put it out of the land altogether—(applause)—here a little, and there a little, till it disappeared altogether. When Mrs. Leavitt came here eight months ago, she organised Unions in Auckland, Napier, Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill, and other places. She endeavoured to organise a Union in Wellington, but for some reason or other she did not succeed, and was very disheartened in consequence. At her request, she (Mrs. Ward) accepted the Presidency of the Unions; and a few months afterwards she came to Wellington, and succeeded very well."[22]

According to the newspaper reporter, the audience of about 100 people heard Ward's "evangelistic address." It also included Ward's announcement that the Blue Ribbon Hall in Wellington was kept open every night 7:30-10 p.m. where drunkards could be brought and converted. She described how one night three drunken men were brought in one night were converted and began working with the Salvation Army in Wellington.[23] All in all, there were fifteen WCTU NZ chapters reported with an approximated membership total of 700.[24]

The second national convention of the WCTU NZ was held in Christchurch on 23 February 1887, with Anne Ward in the chair.[25] Ward led an opening prayer and then gave a speech focusing on the Biblical verse, Phil. iii, 14: "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Mrs. Emma Packe of Christchurch was elected president for the ensueing year. Ward gave a report on her work running cooking classes in Christchurch, and that butchers had supplied meat for soup for the poor. The WCTU NZ had organised that year two petitions for women's suffrage signed by 350 women which were presented to House of Representatives; and, they reported out that Sir Julius Vogel introduced a women's suffrage bill which would also give them the right to sit in Parliament but it was withdrawn at the committee stage.

At the third national WCTU convention in Dunedin on 22 February 1888, the minutes reported that Anne Ward had established a Free Kindergarten in Auckland which provided dinner and had a creche for infants of working mothers.[26] The school was not supported by the Auckland Board of Education,[27] but relied on private contributions to support the renovating of the building (the City Council had donated the use of the former Free Public Library on High Street),[28] providing care, medical checks and feeding of nearly 1000 children under five years of age from June 1887 to 1899 after Anne Ward's death.[29]

Judge Ward was appointed Acting Judge in the Supreme Court in Auckland and Invercargill in the spring of 1887, so they moved to Auckland where she immediately began participating in temperance[30] and church[31] activities. However, she was listed in the WCTU report as national Superintendent of Kindergartens with the address of Park Terrace, Christchurch.[1]^: 210 She resigned from this superintendency in 1889.

During the 1889 convention of the WCTU NZ, President Catherine Fulton referred to Anne Ward living in Auckland. Just a few weeks prior, Judge Ward had resigned as the Acting Supreme Court Judge since he had not been appointed the permanent appointment.[1]^: 211 He and his wife moved back to Christchurch where they lived at 98 Park Terrace during the 1890s.[1]^: 263

At a WCTU meeting in a town 20 kilometers north of Christchurch, Kate Sheppard spoke on the franchise in the Kaiapoi Wesleyan Schoolroom on 1 October 1890. Anne Ward was then appointed Superintendent of Franchise at Kaiapoi,[32] "and it was resolved that the candidates for the parliamentary elections be asked to express their views on women's franchise."[33]

In 1891, the WCTU NZ under the leadership of Annie Jane Schnackenberg sent up to the House of Representatives eight petitions for woman suffrage signed by more than 9000 women. Sir John Hall introduced a bill which received majority support but was narrowly defeated in Legislative Council.[34] Anna Stout started up the first of the Women's Franchise Leagues in Dunedin in 1892, and women activists in several other cities (e.g., Amey Daldy in Auckland) followed soon thereafter. Anne Ward signed the WCTU NZ franchise petition in 1892 as "Annie Ward, Kaiapoi" (sheet 198), and then again in 1893 when thirteen petitions signed by nearly 32,000 women were presented to the House of Representatives.[35] This time, the Electoral Bill introduced by Richard Seddon passed the Legislative Council and was consented to by the Governor on 19 September 1893. This act offered all adult women citizens (except inmates of prisons and asylums) the right to vote in the general election held in November (for whites) and December (for Maori).[34]

The Electoral Roll for New Zealand in 1896 shows "Ann Ward" living in Kaiapoi, Canterbury, and whose occupation was "domestic duties."[36] Meanwhile, her husband is showing on the 1896 Electoral Roll for Christchurch, living at 98 Park Terrace and working as a judge in the District Court.[37]