E. J. SEDDON.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18626, 26 February 1926, Page 6

E. J. SEDDON.

LOVER OF WESTLAND. FROM .MINERS' ADVOCATE TO PREMIER.

Xo reference to the early days of Kumara is complete without mention of E. J. Seddon, the miners' advocate who was later to guide the destinies of New Zealand over a long period. Born in Lancashire in 1845, he was apprenticed to the engineering trade, but heard early the call of the Australian goldfields. After a hard and not too successful experience in Victoria, he accepted work in the Melbourne railway workshops. About this time the West Coasc rushes were beginning, and news of the discovery of gold in unprecedented quantities at Hokitika caused him to forsake the "shops." Landing on the West Coapt in 1866, when the boom was at, its height, he went to the old Six Mile diggings at Wainiea, and, after a time, opened a store there, but when the Kumara Prospectors' secret was discovered, he removed there with his family, and opened an hotel and store. Grievances were fairly plentiful on the diggings, and, Seddon soon became the miners' orator and idol. As an advocate he came into conflict with red tape officials, who resented his bustling methods.

"A Political Agitator." The Minister of Mines warned a new goldfields warden '' there is a political agitator named Seddon down there who makes a great deal of row because there is no one to attend to the rush on the Kumara field."

He rapidly developed a passion for public life, and was elected to the Arahura Road Board, Stafford School Committee, and later the Westland Education Board. Taking a leading part in the movement for the formation of the borough of Kumara, he was one of the town's first Mayors, and represented Arahura on the Provincial Council of Westland, later sitting on the Westland County Council for a lengthy period. His Parliamentary career began, in 1879, when, with Mr E, G. Reid, he was elected in a two-member constituency. In 1891 he entered the Ministry of John Ballance, and the remainder of his public life is so well known, and belongs so much to the Dominion rather than to the "West Coast, thai a recapitulation here would bo out 'of place. To the end he loved Westland with all the affection of one who had struggled so hard and reared, a family there, and to-day his photograph is found in many a West Coast home, indicating that his memory is still revered.