MR SEDDON’S MISTAKE.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 2715, 7 August 1923, Page 2

MR SEDDON’S MISTAKE.

Mr R. J. Seddon, the great New Zealander, had a remarkable memory for names and often surprised people whom he had not seen for years by calling them by their proper names. But for all that he made many mistakes. One of the quaintest was made in the lobby of the House of Representatives in Wellington. The Bedell-Sivright British Rugby football team had arrived, and as they were to be entertained within the precincts of the House, they were standing in a group at the top of the lobby awaiting the coming of the Premier. In the centre of the lobby were gathered all the newspaper men then engaged in the House. The Premier had a trick of being late. He liked the audience to be in breathless expectation. He came in with his celebrated breeze and bluff heartiness and rushed into the centre of me crowd of pressmen grasping the first two available hands. “Well, boys,’? he said, “glad to see you. What sort of a trip did you have coming out from Home.” The disrespectful laughter of the pressmen greeted the> Premier’s hearty welcome to men he had known for years.