Mr Seddon's Tour.

Hastings Standard, Issue 403, 19 August 1897, Page 4

Mr Seddon's Tour.

VIEWS AND REVIEWS. ■\tier I-alf a dozen attempts to interview Mr Seddon the London correspondent of the Lyttelton Times managed to gt.t a few minutes with the Premier at the Hotel CVcil. Iho following extracts are interesting : " What did he think of the Naval Review ? " Mr Seddon, like his Australian neighbors at the Cecil, was greatly impressed by that pacific demonstration of Britain's naval might, and the display impressed him the more because he knew tbat the whole of the giga,ntic flotilla in evidence in the Solent on that day was made up from vessels of the Home Squadron and the Reserve, not a single ship having been drawn from the squadrons in the outer waters of the empire. The grand array of cruisers particularly struck Mr Seddon, for in them was reflected the magnitude of the empire's commerce which they are intended to protect. With such a large number of vessels herded in the narrow waters of the Solent, it was of course, impossible to indulge in manoeuvres, and Mr Seddon, like many others, seems to have found the progress through the fleet on the Wildfire somewhat monotonous. One line-of-battlo ship is, after all, very much like another to the landsman's eye, and the difference between cruisers like the Powerful and the Terrible and those that were anchored in the same line was to the uniformed eye merely of size. The Premier opines, indeed, that a much smaller number of vessels —say a couple of each distinct type—manoeuvring in the Solent would have made a much more entertaining spectacle. One incident which occurred during the progress of the Prince of Wales's procession through the fleet amused Mr Seddon a good deal. It seems that the commander of the vessel containing the members of our Upper House imagined that the Lords of the Imperial Parliament were entitled to precedence over the representatives of Greater Britain, and endeavored to steam past and cut in ahead of the Wildfire. But the captain of the latter had no intention of giving place to the bigger boat and quietly frustrated the effort. It was renewed later and defeated again, the Wildfire's commander calling out from the bridge to the liner's captain, " You can get in behind !" with a very marked emphasis on the final word. So the liner's captain "accepted the inevitable and the Lords remained in the rear of the colonial commoners for the rest of the journey through the lines. After the review Mr and Mrs Seddon went on board Mr Charles Wilson's steam yacht, the El Dorado, the owner having invited all the Colonial Premiers and their wives to dine with him and sleep on his craft. The Misses Seddon, however, returned to town without waiting for the illumination of the fleet—a magnificent spectacle which, Mr Seddon confessed, he could find no words to descriLe adequately, but which would never fade from his memory. He remained 011 the El Dorado's deck for a couple of hours admiring the beautiful scene formed by the miles and miles of ships their hulls outlined in electric lights, and their masts, spars and fighting tops similarly delineated. There was nothing terrible about the fleet at night. It was indeed a weirdly beautiful conglomeration of " will 0' the wisps," for ever and anon each vessel would disappear from sight as one of the hundreds of peregrinating pleasure ships temporarily obscured it from the Premier's sight. Mr Seddon, indeed, forgot for a time the vast destructive forces stored up in the sombre, motionless hulls, then only indicated by the bright lines of glow lamps, but when the hour for the last salute came the terrible intermingled with the beautiful, as from vessels near and far came spurts of vivid bloodred flame followed by the deafening crash of hundreds of cannon. From Spithead to Aldershot is a far cry, but it was only natural to jump from the naval to the military review. Mr Seddon confessed at once that the great army pageant did not impress him particularly, because he had seen something very much like it before. It pleased him greatly to see that in the march past the colonial troops, both foot and mounted, kept line as well as, and looked fully as imposing as the regulars of the Home army, and compared more than favorably with certain regiments. The cosmopolitan character of the Empire's army was well portrayed at Aldershot, and this to Mr Seddon denoted the vastness of our human military resources. At Aldershot the world was shown that our Empire's second line of defence does not consist of that costly and much-abused body of whit.3 men usually referred to as the " British Army" alone. There were on view yellow-skinned Asiatics, ebonyhued Ethiopians, sun-tanned sons of Australasia, Canada, and the Cape; men, indeed, of every clime and creed, but all " Sons of the Empire." And each separate little squad of these soldiers from far-off lands, whether regulars or volunteers, was indicative of an army ready to assist the fighting force of the Motherland should it ever become necessary. It is true there were not thirty thousand men, all told, in the" Aldershot pageant, but to Mr Seddon they represented millions. Your Premier was greatly struck with the completeness of the arrangements in connection with the review. As in the case of the Jubilee procession, the organisation seemed to be perfect, so far as the troops were concerned, and with the arrangements for the comfort and convenience of the Colonial Premiers Mr Seddon was greatly pleased. "We are all deeply indebted to the Secretary of State and the Home Government for the care and attention bestowed on us," said he. Another thing which impressed the Premier at Aldershot was the great popularity of the Queen with the troops. This, he said, could be fairly

gauged by the tremendous cheers with which the men greeted her Majesty as she passer! tach contingent. " The noise of the cheering," Mr Seddon remarked, " must have been heard miles away, and 310 expenditure? of Wank could have been half so' cffec-t-iv? in convincing outsiders of the army'.-; loyalty a?s ihn.-e ehe-oiv." " Can you tell me anytbirg in the conf-. : r?new> you have had at the Colonial Orliee '? A good many people are saying that nothing will come out of them, and that upon essential points in connection with the questions discussed the Colonial Premiers don't agree among themselves." Mr Seddon smiled at this ingenous attempt to draw him, and replied, " I think something will come out of them, and—any other questions you'd like to ask ?" "Oh yes, I should like to bo enlightened a little as to the latter developments of the Freight Conferences." " Well," said the Premier, " as you know I've been negotiating, on behalf of the producer, for lower freights for produce from the colony ever since I arrived in London. A fortnight ago the ship-owners agreed to reduce the charge on mutton by a farthing a pound, and on lamb by an eighth of a penny. On these terms one Canterbury exporting company at once fixed up a five years' contract, but the other companies, actingwith discretion, I think, have not committed themselves pending the completion of the negotiations. At last week's conference comparisons were made between Australian and New Zealand freights, and it was claimed by the ship-owners that the necessity of calling at so many ports to obtain freight and the payment of the harbor-dues, &c., fully accounted for the difference. I thereupon asked them to permit a scale of freights based upon a reduction in the number of ports to be entered for cargo, the Government assisting, in the concentration of produce for export and utilising the railways for the purpose and for the benefit of producers. We are to have another conference shortly, -and meantime the shipowners have agreed to further reduce the carriage on lamb l-16th d per lb."