CONCERNING MR SEDDON

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11461, 20 December 1902, Page 5

CONCERNING MR SEDDON

THOSE WAR CONTINGENTS. (FKOU OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT, j LONDON, November 15. Several of the London papers reproduce portions of my interview with Mr Seddon ns sent by me to your columns. In most cases they add comment* of tfcei-r own. These are generally amusing, but not always reverent 10 the New Zealand Premier. The " Daily News " says: —" That delightful character, Mr Seddon, is being allowed to lap?e from the public memory too scon. This should not be. There ar« reasons why a biography of him has not been undertaken; but'short of that there might be much more done than is being done to keep him fresh in tho general mind We have noted ivith interest a long interview with him, written in London last August, and now returned to tts after many days, in the columns of a New Zealand paper. The first thing to attract the eye was an expression of opinion about the Coronation gift from Mr Seddon's own colony. 'I must say,' observed Mr Seddon with impartial candour, ' that t think the New Zealand gifts were more special and interesting* in their character than those of the other colonies, although, of course, I do not mean in any Hvay to disparage the latter.' " This, however, was not the only respect in which New Zealand was to the fore 1 1 felt,' said Mr Seddon, 'that the colonial Premiers in England ought to preeent a loyal address to tihe Kiiig, congratulating bis Majesty on his Coronation. I did not like to take it upon jdyself,' he continued, with Antipodean ntodeaty, ' to propose that, as there were others who come before me in order of precedence, bo I suggested it to Sir Wilfrid Laurier. He at once caught at the idea, so we Jrafted an address and presented it to ;he King. Bat you see, unless someone iad taken the initiative, that would not iave been done, as it certainly should have been.' Thus once more the good name of the oolonies was rescued from the mire by Mr Seddon, whose week or two of chivalrous silence will" be appreciated by Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the other laggards in loyalty. On his alleged intention of transferring himself to South Africa, Mr Seddon toto his interviewer, while denying that he meant to do so, that 'certain approaches— indeed, definite offers of a very tempting nature,' had been made to him. Here is a mystery. Shall we ever know whence those tempting proposals came?" Also With reference to the same interview, the "Westminster Gazette" remarks :— " We note that Mr.Seddon thought that in his absence New Zealand ' had been falling behind in public interest. Very little news from the colony has appeared in the London papers recently. That must not be. . Now that Mr Seddon has returned, New Zealand will no doubt again 'loom large.' as it ought to do!" ' A letter written from Bristol, published in one of the London daily journals, and signed "W. 0. Whittaker," contains the following observations:—"The latest news from New Zealand announces the fact tha , . Mr Seddon has arrived home end resumed his discoirme on 'The Empire.' There is aleo another item that may prove of interest to Mr Chamberlain, and those who think \#bh him concerning the 'splendid enthusiasm that sent our brothers, our sons, across the seas moved by- the impuke of a common unity.' The item is that one hundred, retttmed New Zealand troopers have applied to the , American Vice-Consul at Wellington to* be sent ' across the seas' .to the Philippines, '/moved by the impulse of, a common unity' to fight for America!" ' "This," remarks Mr Whittakor, "side by, side with the fact that when the Spanish Consul at Auckland .woe 'inundated with "■ applications' from the same 'sons and brothers' of Mr Chamberlain to be sent to Cuba for- the same. purpose, should chow how much importance is to be attached to Mr Seddon's utterance that New Zealand is prepared to defend the Empire to the last man! The fact is that in New Zealand, as elsewhere, with a dull labour market, there are always thousand's of men ready, and willing to defend any empire that pays them well—Mr Seddon'e empire, of course, included. Mr Seddon we "invited Mr Chamberlain to New Zealand. It is to be hoped that the right hem. gentleman will accept the. invitation and learn all Ihese thingw for himself. He woold probably also learn what a very small space the Colonial Secretary and all his work occupies in the eye of the struggling New Zealand artisan" or shopkeeper, or settler on a back block." " Truth " has it that " the rival attempts of Mr Chamberlain and Mr Seddou to attract eiojusive attention to themselves are highly amusing. During the war each i-ougut to outdo the other in his Imperialism. After Mr Seddon had brought his visit to us to a conclusion, it was announced that he contemplated making everything right in South Africa by taking up his abode there. Then came the announcement that Mr Chamberlain intended to go tiere himself. But Mr Sed«lon lias been equal to the occasion; he at once announced that Mr Chamberlain had not taken this step without taking his advice and securing his permission."