OBITUARY.

Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 44, 12 June 1906, Page 4

OBITUARY.

The Eight Honourable E. J. Seddon, P.C., L.L.D., etc.

Can this Colony imagine any more! calamitous catastrophe than that which j we have to record to-day ? Our readers] have not on any occasion had to face of more serious position than that which wej now find ourselves, each and all of us,j compelled to consider. Though a ruling] sovereign may affect his people by a sur-j prisingly sudden death, yet more must, aj democratic loader have in death .so much! greater an influence on the people -whom] he has led, that the sympathy, almost! amounting to pity, with which our loss will be viewed by the whole of the world! is almost as unbearable as the loss we] have sustained. That New Zealand must! reel under the blow of Mr. Seddon’s death will be recognised by everyone. Even! his enemies, politically or otherwise, will! own that no finer or more splendid personality has ever been, and among colonial statesmen, not excepting Sir George Grey, there) has never been a greater man. Fine, in his perceptions of the peoples’ desires, Mr. Seddon was the greatest of all labour politicians, and, if at any time he made a mistake, it was always in the direction of the people that he erred.

As the Director of his country Mr. Seddon was undoubtedly an opportunist, hut that only in the sense that he ruled his country for his country’s good. He may have invited the labourer to luleJ but he was so powerful in mental sag-! acity that the Arbitration and Concilia-) tion Court, which he set up, proved that! his sense of rectitude was such as to give! absolute justice to Capital. Moreover,! in all his political career it must he said! that he never, at any time, made his pcr-j sonal ends subservient to those of the] country he governed. Of the laws to which this country base to acknowledge the late Mr. Seddon as] the instigator, we quote the extreme la-[ hour laws, which are a boon to the better] class of the working men, the Workers' Accident Insurance, etc.—but it cannot be denied that had the late Premier of New Zealand lived we might have found ourselves even heater blessed with other, perhaps, less drastic measures. The absolute fairness with which Mr. Seddon viewed labour legislation as apart from political opportunity, ;was seen in his later utterances, wherein he showed that both Labour and Capital must be fairly] balanced in order to make legislation! worthy of the name of honesty. I In describing Mr. Seddon’s career we] [feel how inadequate any words of which] ■we have knowledge can give praise to the] ■perseverance, determination, and honesty] of purpose which have marked his life.] It must be impossible to account for all] the actions of a great politician. “The hour and the man!” There can be no doubt that the Eight Honourable E. J. Seddon was, in past years, the right man to take charge of New Zealand affairs, and if at any time his actions appeared to be guided otherwise than by public poHcy, it is more than possible that tin great mind of the late Premier foresaw that which the smaller minds of his] people could not be expected to under-] ■stand. Trained on the hard-working] ■grounds of the goldfields, nursed in hard-] [ship and wildness of life, the “friend oil the people ” earned his experience, gained] his power and made his strength in the] sheer hard struggle for bread and butter,] which we own is the best training foil Colonial life, and if he rose he rose bj | his own merit; rising not on the luscious! profits of the merchant, but on the! strength of character which has made! him a popular idol. From the lowest to! the highest! Surely such a result isl worthy of a nation’s worship. “ A master! of men.” Indeed ! Can the late Eight! Honourable R. J. Seddon be described! otherwise ? His life has been one glori-l ous onward progress. Rising in this! little colony from an ordinary, very or-[ dinary, working man to that of a] publican—a calling which, though de-I spised by the ignorant, is possibly the! most trying towards proof of honesty—l he earned such trust that his immediate! neighbors on the West Coast required! that he should represent them in the! New Zealand Parliament, and upwards,! ever upwards, OUR late Premier rose,l

till in the nations of the earth he became] a name—and in the British Empire of] to-day he has been a power. t; We need scarcely say that by the death of Mr. Seddon this Empire loses a great] personal incentive to the large * Colonial Imperialism which we foresee, and while New Zealand may cry in her grief at the] loss of her (Statesman, the English-»peak-ing race must feel sorrow at the withdrawal of a major force to union.

In concluding our sorrowful regrets at the death of the late Premier of New Zealand, we must refer to the magnificence of his manhood : as a husband, as a father, and as a brother to every man who has ever asked or deserved his help [there has never been a better man than [Mr. Seddon, and in expressing our re[gret at the loss which has been incurred [by his family, we only state the more |serious loss which has come upon New [Zealand.

THE CAREER OF THE LATE PREMIER.

I Bom on the 22nd June, 1845, at [Eccleston, St. Helens, Lancashire, in [England, the late Premier of New Zealand emigrated first to Melbourne in [1863, whence he went to the Bendigo gold fields, hut having no success returned to Melbourne. In 1866 Mr. Seddon came to Hokitiki, where he started mining, then storekeeping. He married in 1869 Louisa Jane Spotswood, and the same year entered public life as a member

of the Arahura Road Board. Ho was first Mayor of Kumara. When Westland was granted Provincial Government in 1873, Mr. Seddon was elected to the Council and became Chairman of Committees. He first contested a Parliamentary seat in 1876, when he was defeated, but at Sir George Grey’s personal request he again contested the Westland division in 1879, when he was duly elected, and from that year he held an unbroken record of Parliamentary service to the day of his sudden death. In 1891 Mr. Seddon was made Minister of PublicWorks, Mines, and Defence, and on the first of May, 1893, he became Premier, which last position, as well as many portfolios, he held till he died. At the Diamond Jubilee of the late Queen Victoria Mr. Seddon represented New Zealand, and was created a Privy Councillor. The late Premier of this Colony attended the coronation of the present King in 1902, on which occasion he visited South Africa. His death, recorded above, clases a successful and biilliant career.