WHEN MIGHT WAS RIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 189, 8 August 1908, Page 16

WHEN MIGHT WAS RIGHT.

A TRUE INCIDENT IN THE LIFE J OF THE LATE RICHARD ; JOHN tiEDDON. (By "Ajor.") Away bnck in *he late Seventies, I ' found myself a midshipman on H.M.S. , j B— (I can't give you her full name, for reasons which to particularise would be j most indiscreet), with two months' leave ashore. Alick, by favourite brother, was } then down in Kumara, in the Union Bank, ', and of course I went straight for him. I When I got there, Alick said to mc: — ; '"Dick Seddon ha? had a big row in the I Court to-day. Some thirteen foreigners '—with big fighting Mack- at their liead— ' had jumped his claim, water-r.ice, and I dam. and Dick won't give up hU rights." I "Good!" said' 1; "tell us the yarn, Alick.'' " Well." replied Alick, looking mc all over; " I haven't seen you. Jack, for three years, and you are looking darn'd well." " I '"Stow that." said I. '"and fire ahead; Pve heard of Dick Seddon at sea." We were sitting in the cosy parlour of the Bank premises, the Bank being closed for the day, and so Alick, filling las briar, commenced: — "' Before Dick went to publichouse keepI ing here, he owned a water-race, dam, and claim on the lead, and used to work them, but wben he got the Queen's Hotel, Scddon-street, he couldn't attend to both, so big Made and his party watched their chance. Under the mining regulations, you must work your mining privileges; if you don't they arc liable to forfeiture in sixty days from the time you ceasp representing them. Now, Big Mack and his mates knew this quite well, .so after the expiration of the allotted time they made application under i the aba-ndnient clauses of the Act lor ! cancellation of Dick's rights. It came before Dr. G — in the Warden's Court today and Dick appeared as a nrning advocate to defend them. But the foreign--1 ers proved their case up to the hilt, so the Goldfields Warden had no option in Uie i matter. j 'Quoth Dick to the beak : Your WorI ship has declared my rights forfeited i under the abandonment clauses of the I Mining Act: yet. with all due respect to I you, I do not intend to give them up. .' Might, in this case, is right, and I'm go;ng i to maintain it.' i " 'Mr Seddon,' the kinddy Warden replied, ' if I could fine you in lieu of for- ; feiture, I would; but the Act is manj datory. All 1 can do is to penalise you, and I declare those rights and mining privileges forfeited for non-completion of j the labour clauses and those men now i applying for them to be grantees, as if the I land and privileges had never been held I under title from the Crown.' . I " And so Dick went out of the Court," resumed! Aliek, " very determined. The foreigners followed, and says Big Mack j outside: ' Look here Mister Dick, we've beat ye at last.' " " ' No. you haven't,' cries Dick. ' J'll be at that dam to-morrow morning, and if any of you attempt to put a peg or stick insirle my boundaries, I'll put him in the Jam and drown him.." « » • • " Big Mack was a well-known fightingman ; in fact, he was the terror of the i West Coast. His six-feet-four of bone, flesh and muscle had never been licked.' When he used to get on the 'razzle ! dazzle.' it took four policeman to take him up. Dick knew all about this. " What's he going to do? " cried L Dick's going up early." "Let's go up and see him." And so we went up Seddon-street. When we got to the "Queen's" Dick was behind the bar in his shirt-sleeves "Hallo. Alick." cries he, cheerily. "This is Jack," says Alick, indicating mc. ° "I've, heard of you," says Dick, coming round the counter. "I won't ask you young fellows to have anything, but come into the parlour and have some tea."' Mr Seddon looked mc all over, and I interrogated mc about life in the British Navy, and he let fall that some of his own people belonged to it. Presently tea came, and we all had some. When I got a chance, I said—"Mr Seddon, Alick has beea telling mc you had a big fight to-dHy " "Liker to have a bigger one to-mor-row." laughed Mr Seddon. "Who's going with you?" "Never thought about anyone," answered the man who was to be our great statesman later on. "But you can't fight the lot yourself," cried I, anxiously. "Going to try very hard," replied our host. "Let mc go with you." "You. What the dickens could you do?" grinned Dick, glancing down at'my uniformed four-foot nothing. "Oh, I've seen a few real good ; uns in our mess-room,' , cried I. "Right you are," answered Dick, admiringly; -stay hero to-night." Alick wanted to come, too. l.ut Dick said very decidedly "No," as, of course, the bank wouldn't stand it. "It doesn't matter for Jack there; he can do as he likes, but you know, Alick, I don't want you sacked." Mr Seddon was always fond of younp fellows in those days, and frequently went out of his way to keep them straight. So I dossed down on the sofa, and at 4 o'clock next morning Dick shook mc, and he and I had a cup of coffee each, and off we went up through the bush track two miles to the dam. When we got there, Mr Seddon showed mc by the grey of dawn his boundary pegs, and over the clay of the apron he drew with a stick a line. Beyond this lay a huge I barkless rimu tree, parallel with the dam face. I sat on the stump, from which this huge dead giant of the forest had been i cut, and Dick was coolly sketching out : his programme for the coming event, i when I. chancing to look down the track. called out gleefully, "Well, here they come, Mr Seddon." We both looked again, and saw coming up that lone bush track in the still morning of a November day, armed with I pick a.nd shovel, axe, and hammer, quite a dozen men. Dick stood undaunted on the highest part of his dam protective works, his thumbs stuck in the armholes of his waistcoat, his chest well forward, and bis head set back with all the

dogged tenacity of a Briton about to defend for all time his birthplace, home, and nation, and waited. * » • « As the foreign invasion came and took up a position at the foot of the dam «proi, Dick bade them pleasantly enough ' Good-morning," and then unconcernedly asked what their business might be. "Oh, Mr. Seddon," replied Big Mack, rather offensively, I thought. "We've come to take possession of our rights—" "Your rights," laughed Mr. Seddon; "I didn't know you'd got any up this way." "This dam is ours, and you know it quite well," roared the giant from foreign parts, insolently, "so don't ye give us any of yer lip." "Lip!" cried Seddon, "well, if you or any of your thieving crew attempts to put a peg or stick inside this 'boundary in you go into the dam." "You don't say so," jeered Mack and several voices. "I mean it," cried Dick, getting ready for action, a sight which called up in mc Charley Beresfords and Condors, and 1 yelled out from my stump, "Come on, Dick! let's do something." Dick nodded approvingly, and coming to his chalked boundary called out in unmistakeable tones: "I'll fight the lot of you." "Right!" yelled the crowd in derision. Dick began to peel off, and I sprang upright on the stump, and, pointing with all the supremacy of a commander of any seventy-four, ordered the foreigners down on the fallen trunk. Then 1 said: "We Sght one man to one man. One at a time." Dick was now stripped, all but hi? trousers and boots, and in the heigh of good humour cried out. ''Now. boys, ['m going to light, you one at a time. Five minutes go-as-you-please, then one minute spells in between. If I beat the lot, you will have to allow mc a renewal of my lost rights; but if anyone of you happens to beat mc, why you can have the lot and no ill-will from mc." Big Mack and his mates went apart. Of course they naturally thought that their champion, with such a record, was quite good enough: and, besides, as one afterwards confessed, "we wanted to see the fun just as much as you did"; and so Big Mack lurched forward with his best bullying airs, and sneered, amid applause, "We'll accommodate ye," and soon afterwards stripped to the bun". On the top of the dam apron was a square of sixteen feet, smooth as a billiard table: "Just my fighting room," cried Dick, gleefully. Dick's crease, before spoken of, ran down the middle thereof, but when both champions were nearly ready for the deadly encounter bomeone called out, "You've got no timekeeper." At this both turned to mo on the stump, and Dick said, with his deep blue eyes nn mc, "The young fellow will keep time," to which the other readily assented..Beckoning mc up, Dick put a. small clock he had in his waistcoat into my hands, saying, "Now, five minutes and then one, you understand." I had taken the time in many a conclusion before, and nodded. "One. minute," cried Dick; "lend mc your knife and your handkerchief." Then he cut all the brace buttons oil' his breeches and knotted my handkerchief to his own. Pas-sing one end through the loop of his brooches strap, he tied this soft improvised belt round his waist and so stood ready. But whilst lie was doin S this 1 had time to note the magnificent proportions of the t\yo who would be immediately locked in deadly combat. Let mc describe each. Bi°- Mack, as he stands upright in lu.s boots and moleskins, appears a perfect j gladiator in height, build and l.iuscle—Six foot four if he. is an inch. Good he appears to be for anything in the way of boxing or fisticuffs—his thews and sinews bunching out and knotted like steel cords, whilst his skin shines like mahogany—but I note that he is •'groggy" from the hips down. Dick, on the other hand, is a horn athlete from top to too, and souu-d in wind and limb. 1 look with pride as I note his clean, powerful limbs and great chest. His clear eye and goodhumoured countenance meet the somewhat scowling visage of his much more powerful looking opponent with an easy and confident mem. "And, by the Lord Harry, he wants it all, too," mutter I, as I return to my post on the stump, open watch in hand. . The minute hand or the watcTi Is at half-time, and as I wait for the. second pointer to come up. I have time to glance at the gladiators o,n the bank, at the still forest all round us, at the summer sky growing brighter, into the calm unruffled waters of the dam. and at the eager line of the twelve faces of the spectators on the fallen tree. Presently a bell-bird swells the forest with his glorious melody to the new-born day: Dick smiles blandly and on everybody, and I ruthlessly cry: "Shake hands"; and "Go," and they are at it. Big Mack leads straight at Ms opponent, us if he intended carrying all before him at the first onslaught, and his sledge-hammer blows rain on Dick's body like those of any steam hammer pressed for time. Some of them appear to mc to be taking dire effect, as Lancashire is sent several times to the boundary line, at which the foreigners yell with delight. The round is more than half over, and Dick has been getting all the worst of it. But he is as cool as a cucumber, and actually smiling too. I can't make it out; but nevertheless shout defiance to the crowd on the trunk. I note with no little satisfaction that a puzzled expression flits at times over Big Mack's face; but suddenly he makes a'rush and lets fly a sickening thud, at striking distance, too. Dick takes it full on the chest and, horror of horrors, gone down, but he is up again in an eyp-wink. and next instant he has hopped backwards quite oi-ht feet so that Mack's next blow falls wildly "i the air. The. boys whoop encourag■ngly to Mack, who has lost his temper. Dick shouts with good-humoured laughter, and time's up. . Mack floundered down to his friends who received him with confident shouts' "Do ? 1 t 00 " 1 " OVPr tO m " « nd says' Don t look so gW : then he whispered. St r7 k ° * T -' llSt ™nted to feel him. But Lancashire's on the job corn Z - baCk h0 trI P S t0 his corner. Mack soon joined him. and Dick k "°;ving they have half a minute to spare, chats good-naturedly about the ball to be held , n Kumara that nisrht and ventures; to hope Mack will be there Then r call warningly. "Ot ready" and (,o, marvelling the while at Seddon s wonderful nerve. Lord! what a revelation that round was to us all lan eashire hit out everywhere. T t was a Lancashire fist propping Mack under the right jowl; it was the next instant another Lancashire two bund red-pounder smashing the opposite jaw: the next. Mack would go spinning round like any teetotum; he'd go backwards with knockout uppereuts; he'd go down sideways with awful body blows: he'd reel all ways from lightning-like rights and lefts, from swinging blows and quite unlook-ed-for surprises, until at length we all heard it. Mack was dazed for a moment, and the next instant • his right hung

uselessly by his side; his arm was broken by a swinging blow more terrible than | anything yet given. ' The round was only half over, but Mack was pluck itself, and fought on to the end. Seddon only once cried out: "I'll break your other arm if you don't give in"; but I don't think lie wanted to do Mack any more damage, for the round ended without anything but harmless sparring. I called time sharp, and the maimed giant limped down to his now somewhat crestfallen mates. Dick came smiling towards mc. and whispered: "How'd you like to have the next go yourself?" Then raising his voice he shouted for all to hear: "Two minutes' spell." | That showed the man in Seddon. He could see his opponent was nearly done, and so gave him every chance tn recover. What a lot I thought of him at that time! It was a cold raw morning, and long ere the passage of the extra time. Big Mack was clean out -of it and couldn't come to time; so, whilst they were getting another ready. Dick chattered gaily and took to chaffing mc about being late for dinner. To make a long story shorr, they i sent another, and be had a short shrift on a broken jaw. Yet another came. . but Dick retired him on a difficulty too; and so, as the rost looked bewildered, Dick went towards his clothes, calling over his shoulder to mc to get down to Kumara before the boys and tell Human to have a good breakfast ready for fifteen. But the boy* wouldn't go, and one threatened mc on the journey This happened a long time ago, but that celebrated fight is as fresh in my memory as if it occurred only yesterday. Well, Dick got his forfeited "rights bick, and for all 1 know to the contrary, he might have held them to the day of his much-lamented death. I saw Dick Seddon fight that manly combat with his good English fists iii that long ago. and I have seen him fiijht many an uphill game since with his good heart, strong head, nnd ready tongue, and win. too. With all hi* fmlts Mr Scddnn, formerly called "Dick," is missed da.ilv more and more. t