THE ARGUS ON MR SEDDON.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 134, 9 June 1906, Page 1

THE ARGUS ON MR SEDDON.

The Melbourne Argus of tho Ist June contains the following as leading article:—•

Australia joins with the utmost heartiness in the cordial welcome that has been extenedd by the Federal authorities to Mr Richard Seddon, Premier of New Zealand. It is the very essence of democracy which causes us to rejoice in the success of a strong, man. Mr Seddon is a son of the people. He owes nothing of his success to lineage, to prescription, or to special schooling. His whole career is a magnificent embodiment of the individualistic principle that worth, force of character, and integrity alone ought to count. He stands -but above his fellows because he has the characteristics which force a man to the top. fHe presents in all his personality a direct negation of the socialistic principle that every man is as good as his fellow, and that equality should govern all things. . From the" position of an employee of the Newport workshops to a position of prominence in the Empire he has risen by the exercise of capacity and determined will. All this we concede to him; and it is only when, in the excess of hospitality .and the unfettered exercise of his remarkable rhetorical gift, Mr Deakin declares that it is Mr Seddon who has brought prosperity to New Zealand, we are compelled to interpose a very mild caveat. That Mr Seddon has been a magnificent opportunist we admit. That he has fulfilled the poet's demand—. " Watch what main currents draw the years, Cut prejudice against the.grain," we are prepared to allow. But when to him are attributed all the gifts or providence, all the industry of a large population, and all the prodigality of nature, we are compelled to enter a mild protest. v Australia also is enjoying a period of prosperity unprecedented since our early gold-digging days. Yet we have had no Seddou to lead us along the bright path to afHuency. Indeed, our circumstances must present a puzzle to those who always like to attribute national good to some particular policy enunciated by some prominent man. Australia has during the last few years enjoyed or endured all sorts of policies, from all kinds of men. The leadership of the Commonwealth Parliament has been as changeable as the hues in a kaleidoscope; and yet the country has become extremely prosperous. It thus happens that New Zealand and Australia can rejoice together, the one in the enjoyment of the good fortune that ever attenefs the unchanging Seddon, the other in the general well-doing which has somehow managed to come without him. The president of the New Zealand Farmers' Onion, in the speech which was telegraphed to Mr Seddon in summarised form yesterday, points to something which furnishes the clue to the "extraordinary prosperity " of that colony and of Australia. Wool has reached a price in the London market that has been unequalled for 47 years. Wool is merely one of the many products which have reached a very high price coincident with increased production in both Australia and New Zealand. Now New Zealand can sing " On us, on us, the unchanging season smiles." Whilst Australia is the subect of a very capricious climate. New Zealand in a productive sense is always booming, and Mr Seddon booms with it. The great increase in production, corresponding with favourable seasons, has had more to do with the prosperity of New Zealand and Australia than the strong reign of Mr Seddon in the one place or the weak essays of a variety of rulers in Australia in the other. But we have no desire to be critical of Mr Seddpn, for there are some qualities in him which compel the admiration of all. He is an out-and-out Imperialist, and when he pleads, as he did last night, for a better understanding of the colonies Avith the Mothercountry, we are all with him. Most interesting was his recital of a conversation with Mr Gladstone, in which that statesman renounced his former attitude respecting the colonies. He had formeify said that the idea that the colonies were a support to the Mother Country seemed to him the veriest superstition. They were, he said, not feeders, but stickers. Mr Seddon stated last night that he drew from Mr Gladstone an admission of his mistake, and an aspiration for the continued growth and strength of a Greater Britain. It is when the Briton in Mr Seddon speaks—and it is never far from the surface—that we can all admire and sympathise with him, and rejoice that a man of his capacity and oyalty so speaks to the Empire on behalf of the great colony of" New Zealand.