MR SEDDON'S DEATH.

Evening Star, Issue 12875, 26 July 1906, Page 2

MR SEDDON'S DEATH.

A TRIBUTE FROM EARL ROBERTS. During his presidential address at the annual meeting of the National Service League at the Royal United Service Institution on June 12, Earl Roberts made a sympathetic and appreciative reference to the late Premier of New Zealand. He said that a feeling of mingled shrrow and admiration must have gone through the Empire at the news of the death of that great democratic* Imperialist, Mr Seddon, whose supreme object in life seemed to be to do everything possible to secure a closer union between, all Britons at Home and Beyond the Seas. He was inspired by ail intense desire to see the scattered portions of the Empire united in the strong bonds of kinship and mutual affection. This fact, and the loss which they had sustained, made it particularly interesting to members of the League to remember that Mr Seddon was one of the first to give his warm approval to its objects shortly after it was founded. A SOUTH AFRICAN OPINION. The following letter, received by Mr George G. Stead, of Christchurch, from his sister in Johannesburg, is interesting, as showing how Mr Seddon was appreciated in South Africa:— “I feel as if I have to condole with you rm a great loss—that of Seddon. New Zealand has good cause to grieve for such a man. His groat influence was used always in hex behalf and for her benefit. He was an Imperialist, an Empire-maker to his heart’s core, and our Empire can ill spare such a man. At times I have felt angry with hup for his interference in onr Affairs, our Transvaal domestic affairs, if I may use such a term, especially as one who lived thousands of miles off could not possibly know all onr reasons for acting differently to what he thought was right, and he should have given us credit for having men as good and as well-meaning as himself, and in some ways' —business ways—as clover. But he, with his wonderful energy and personality, could not help letting his thoughts wander to all parts of the vast Empire he loved so well, and he considered it no doubt a duty to voice his disapproval of what he thought wrong. A man with his' 1 force of character could not help sometimes running counter to others. Bur all this is nothing compared to the good he has done for New Zealand, and. through New Zealand, to the world ultimately. lie war. so outspoken, so etromr in upholding what he considered right, and he hihorcd for the good of mankind. This is what I have gathered from what I have read o? him Ido not know your opinion of him, as you have never mentioned him to me You may possiWy not admire him or h:s policy, as, of course, you know and understand his public life’s work far better than I do, and such a man with such a personality was bound to have friends who admired him, and ethers who perhaps cordially disapproved of him. Still, I feel somehow tha l you are of the former, and felt that lus death is a great calamity. I feel it is so not only to New Zealand—how he loved her—hut to our whole Empire.” THE NEWS IN LONDON. [From Our Special Correspondent.! LONDON, June 15. M.P.’S MEETING OF CONDOLENCE. Some thirty or forty members of Parliament, representative of all parties, assembled in one of the committee rooms of the House on Tuesday afternoon to move a resolution of condolence in respect to the death of Mr Seddon. Sir Joseph Ward was present by invitation. I am indebted to the ‘Australian Trading World’ for a summary of the speeches. Sir Charles Dilke, who presided, referred to Sir George Grey and Mr Seddon as the two Prime Ministers conspicuous among all who have served democracy. “Grey,” he said, “lived to be the idol of Australas’an democracy; Seddon crew to be the best-known statesman of the new English peoples owing allegiance to the Brit'sh Crown. The fickleness of democracy is a common taunt. The constancy to Seddon of the New Zealand electors is therefore the more noteworthy. He won. kept, and de*s°rved it by courage, strength, and sense. He died in his full power, without old age, and with no death-bed agony for those he loved We cannot sorrow at the death he would have chosen for himself. We condole on their loss, and our with the people of New Zealand, with his children, and with bis wife.”

Mr J. Cnthcart Wason (who was a mem- I bcr of the New Zealand Parliament before entering the House of Commons). Sir Gilbert Parker, Mr J, Ramsay Macdonald (one of the whips of the Labor party), and , the Bicht Hon. Thos- Bnrt (the veteran Liberal-Labor member) all spoke in support of the resolution. Mr Macdonald . mentioned that only a few days before be had received a.letter from Mr Seddon offering him the hospitality of the New Zealand Government on his forthcoming visit to Australasia. Sir Joseph Ward, in acknowledging the motion of condolence, said the bereaved . family of Mr Seddon and the Government and people of New Zealand would highly appreciate such a well-deserved tribute and resolution of condolence from so widely representative a gathering of members of the British Parliament. Sir Joseph added that he had for long years been intimately associated with Mr Seddon, whom he honored most highly, and who was held in great reverence by all parties in his own colonv, and name was honored throughout the Empire. Adverting to Mr Ramsay Macdonald's remarks, Sir Joseph Ward observed that if the representative of the English Labor party visited New Zealand, he might be assured that the offer of hospitality so recently extended to him by the late Mr Seddon would gladly be fulfilled by the deceased Premiers col lea mi os. The members of the Independt&t Labor party in the House also held’ a meeting to thir regret at Mr Seddon’s death. Mr Keir Hurdle, the leader of the party, presided, and a resolution was unanimously adopted expressing sincere condolence with the lafe Premier’s family in their bereavement, and recording the admiration entertained by the members of the party for the social work of the Governments over which Mr Seddon had presided APPRECIATIONS. It may be of interest to give a selection from the mass of “ appreciations ” and character sketches which appeared in the English Press this week. Sir Joseph Ward’s feeling tribute to the memory of his late friend and chief, as given in conversation with your correspondent on Monday last, will be found elsewhere. Next in interest, perhaps, is the appreciation contributed to the ‘Daily Chronicle’ by the Hon. W. P. Reeves, formerly Minister for Labor in Mr Seddon’s Cabinet, and now High Commissioner. “ I have known Mr Seddon, of course, intimately for some twenty years,” save Mr Reeves. “I have been c'osely associated with him in political and official life. Perhaps the most striking of his many striking qualities was Ins extraordinary physical and mental energy. He was a man of very high vita’ity, with its concomitants, great courage and robust self-confidence. He seemed to laugh at fatigue. I have known him keep on the move for sixteen or eighteen hours at a stretch, passing during that time through a score of different kinds of work. He was a good judge of character, and he thoroughly understood and grasped the conditions of public life and public business in his colony. In addition to this, he had an enormous knowledge of the people their feelings, requirements, and temper. I should doubt whether any public man ever, knew a country and people so well a* lie knew New Zealand. “ His hearty, genial manner put him on frankly-easy terms with men of all classes Even his opponents respected his strength and determination. Their usual estimate of him was that whatever else he might be, he was a man. His kindness and family affection were known and recognised by all those who came near the inner circle of his life.” —lmperial Social! m.— After reviewing Mr Seddon’s remarkable career, ‘The Times’ remarks:—“He was a big man, with a very firm grasp of realities ; a man of noble ideals and of generous sentil ments, albeit a man who bore traces of his ancestry aud of the hard conditions of bis life, with which criticism, and especially superfine criticism? might make merry ft®, the delectation of people not fit to tie his •hoe latcheta. The keynote el lib Sed-

don’e home policy was hatred of the prin-' ciple of unlitoited competi principle of ‘ Every man for himself, and the Devil take the hindmost.’ H© has been called a Socialist, and, no doubt, much of the legislation he promoted does coincide in many respects with Socialist aims. We do not, however, read him as a Socialist in any proper sense, but as a strong individualist, whose efforts to avert the evils of selfishness erected into a principle accidentally resemble the things advocated by theoretical Socialism. . . . New Zealand is admittedly prosperous in spite of, if not because of, Mr Seddon’s legislation; and should that legislation break down, its aims at any rate are generous. . . . Mr Seddon was strongly differentiated from Socialists by his intense patriotism and en lightened Imperialism. He was one of the strongest advocates of the Imperial idea to be found in the Empire; and may thus be accepted as proof that the best aims of. Socialism may be reached without sacrificing other precious things to which Socialists show in all countries bitter and ignorant hostility.” —A Great Englishman.— “The British Empire,” says the ‘Daily Telegraph,’ “has lost one of the statesmen whom it could least afford to spare. England has lost one of her most devoted sons. . . . Very few colonial statesmen have succeeded in getting hold of the British public as Mr Seddon did, nor, with the exception of Cecil Rhodes, has ever appealed so vividly to the imagination of the British democracy. ... A great colonial leader and a great Englishman has died in Richard Seddon, and all his compatriots at Home will read with gratitude the nobly-earned eulogy which his Sovereign has added to the messages of condolence sent to his family. King Edward speaks of the ‘ permanent that Richard Seddon has won ‘ among the statesmen who have most zealously aided in fostering the sentiment of kinship, on which the unity of the Empire depends.’ We shall hope that some suitable memorial of so sturdy and strong an Englishman may soon be raised in the country of his birth.” —Three Supporting Faiths.— The ‘ Chronicle ’ observes that Mr Seddon ‘‘had three supporting faiths —faith in himself, faith in New Zealand, and faith in the British Empire. Such a man, who had played so conspicuous a part in public life, deserves Imperial honor. . . . About the sincerity of Mr Seddon’s British patriotism there can be no question. lie had, too, a policy for every occasion, and was never afraid to proclaim it. From the suggestions which he put forward much useful discussion followed; and the death of Seddon of New Zealand is a veal loss to the constructive statesmanship of the Empire.” —A Man of the People.— The ‘ Manchester Guardian’s ’ estimate ; —“ Personally Mr Seddon was a good husband and father, and earned a name for sticking to his friends, and could usually keep his temper in political scuffles. If it cannot be said that he raised the tone of public life in his colony, it is certain that he did not deserve most of the wild and violent charges of corruption flung at his head. His mannerisms were easy to satirise. His faults were those of a full-blooded, rough, unlettered fighter who had shouldered his way to power in the face of ridicule; of a cool and rather tricky tactician who was, nevertheless, a bold man; of an opportunist, who rendered long and striking service to the cause of social reform. His sympathies were genuinely with the masses. His views he picked up as he went along. He hardly ever, we believe, read a book, though he s,tidied statutes, Blue Books, and newspapers to practical purpose. But in the ups and downs of life he had learned to read men, and the sort of men amongst whom his earlier life was passed he understood—few better. He never played at politics, or at anything else; and 'his success is an instance of what may be clone by a man of the people who possesses heartiness, pluck, push, shrewdness, and 'Absolute concentration.” ‘‘WHO WAS ME SEDDON?” Although a great many people in this country have only the vaguest of notions regarding New Zealand, its whereabouts, and its people, I thought that everyone j with any pretence to education had heard ,of Mr Seddon. Not so, however, as the following incident, related to me by a New Zealand nurse, will indicate. She is in a nursing home where there is a staff of about thirty nurses. On the morning on which the news of Mr Seddon’s death was published in the papers she asked her colleagues if they know who ho was One of them replied : ‘‘Wasn’t he something to do with Australia, or something? As for the.rest of the nnrses. not one of them knew anything about the late Premier except the sister in. charge, and she would persist in calling . him “Mr Seddons !” &