HIGH COMMISSIONERSHIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12862, 10 May 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

HIGH COMMISSIONERSHIP.

STATEMENT BY THE PREMIER.

'• NOT GOING TO LEAVE NEW ZEALAND."

YYiu.n proposing the toast, of the Miiiislryt at the farewell banquet to • Mr, " Kerwin, at Wellington, Mr. P. W. Gough incidentally expressed the hope , that the Premier would nob leave New Zealand to accept "a gilded obscurity in London.'' This brought the Premier out perhaps more emphatically than he has spoken on (his subject on ally previous occasion. Mr. Seddon said the hope had been expressed that lie would not leave the colony, and be attracted to the Mother Country to lake up a very high petition now vacant. " I have said all along." the Premier went on, •'thai when duty calls it is for me to obey, and I have said that 1 believe I pan do more for the colony, in the colony, and for the Empire, than* can. do away from New Zealand, and I am not going to leave New Zealand. 1 cannot, of course, gentlemen, prevent my friends, who wish me away, from surreptitiously obtaining » paint brush and a can of .paint* and putting on my luggage, 'High Commissioner. London.' i am not so sure that they have not been to the ship-' ping companies to try to arrange my passage. You can take the horse to the water but you cannot- make him drink. Though you have got the label and arranged the ticket, that is not to say the passenger i* going, it' it amuses them it does not take much to amuse some people. 1 simply apply a Maori word, and say, ' Taihoa! Taihoa!'' 1 am'not of the mould that declines to face difficulties..; 1 have been facing them all my life. Strenuous and determined effort and never flinching, has placed me, and has kept me. where I am to-day. We have in November next, if not sooner, to go before the country. Imagine a Leader, in the face of elections coining shortly, going away . in' such time and such circumstances. Gentlemen, it would wreck tho whole of liny, career. I will not throw away lightly that; which has been given me for so many war*>j by the people of New Zealand. They are my judgesthe judges of the Ministry—they; have been our judges and must be again.'