THE DEATH OF MR. SEDDON

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13236, 23 July 1906, Page 6

THE DEATH OF MR. SEDDON

MAKES A SENSATION IN ENGLAND.

£ PRESS AND OTHER COMMENTS.

[MOM OETt OWN COCEESJ'ONDE.S'T.)

London*. June 15. It was ;on Monday morning, when I ; was on my way to 30, Fleet-street, that I suddenly ■ received a shock. Upon a newspaper contents bill carried by a "sandwich ma* "'I read in large black letters the startling wordy, "Death of Mr. Seddon**'. It did come as a • sharp and sudden shock to think of that . vivid and impressive personality as a mere memory of the past.

- THE EVENT OF THE DAY. I It was a very curious and striking experi- | ence to a quondam New Zealander to ob- ; serve how entirely the death of the New Zealand Premier was the event, of that clay in London, especially when one could carry back ones memory a few years and realise how very difficult would have been the experience had a like event then occurred. To London; New Zealand was. almost terra incognita before the Seddon era, but. however' much one maj- have disagreed with Mr- Seddon as a politician or disapproved; much of his legislation, no one can -'pea-, sibly, without disingenuousness, deny that Mr. Seddon did more than anybody, else : ever has done to make New Zealand known 1 on this side of the world. ;'■ | ■■■■ SIR JOSEPH WARD'S TRIBUTE. '■i Naturoiily Sir Joseph Ward and Mr. W. Pember Reeves .were promptly sought by representatives of ' the, London papers ■■ for "interview.?" and "impressions" and "appreciations" of . their ex-chief. Most of I then' utterances, however, necessarily consifted of biographical reminiscences which ■ Would be no news to New Zealand readers. Therefore, I content myself with a few brief quotations. ! Sir Joseph Ward made a. feeling reference to: the decease of his chief, adding: "Mr. Seddon's removal from the political stage in New Zealand, creates a void it is almost impossible to fill, for the reason that he was a man of extraordinan-y part*, and until the last was always full of fire and vigour. Mr. Seddon has been Premier since 1893, and he has gone through four general elections, increasing his majority each time. This is, I believe, a record for any responsible Minister." "Will his death make any . difference to your party?" he was asked. "I do not think so," replica Sir Joseph. '-The Liberal party is very strong in the colony, and I believe its policy will go on the old lines, although it has lost its head. Nothing can displace it at present." NEWSPAPER COMMENTS: ■ .: As might have been expected, there is a vast outpouring of newspaper comment upon the deceased Premier, his career, administration, and a.cti3. , / The Times says:—" The news of/the sudden death of Mi'. Seddon has been received by the people of this country and of the Empire at large with very sincere regret. ;V. . . No man can achieve success without calling forth abundance of criticism and suffering some detraction. Least of all can he keep his, party in power for a long term of years without being pictured by his political opponents in very unflattering colours. Mr. Seddon, like all strong men, cared very •little for those things, and probably did not attach much more importance to the flattering portraits painted by his political friends. He had strong convictions, of his own, founded, it must be said, upon a large store of information and of knowledge of men, as well as of things. So long as he could give effect to those convictions he cared little view ; what other people took of his conduct. Though he had his weaknesses, like the rest of. us, though he could, and did, like every other politician, great or small, play to the gallery, though there are all sorts of stories about - how he ' put his foot in it'; here and there, all ■ these things are as nothing in comparison with the mass of solid achievement, giving incontrovertible evidence of exceptional qualities of head and heart. He was a big man with a very firm grasp of reali- [ ties, a man of noble ideals and of generous sentiments,' albeit .a man who bore traces of his ancestry,' and of the hard j conditions of, his life,.with which criticism, and especially, superfine criticism, might make merry for the . delectation of people not fit to tie his shoe-latchets. The keynote of Mr. Seddon's home policy was hatred of the principle of unlimited competition principle of 'Every man for himself, and the Devil take the hindmost. . ■ . . It Js said in New Zealand that his legislation is only good for fine weather, that it Will do very well so long as the country is prosperous, but that in' bad j times there will be a great revulsion of feeling, which will sweep away most of his work. We should be sorry- to 'see New Zealand less prosperous merely in order to put these assertions to the test, but we do not quite follow the, argument. It is the poorest; who suffer first and most when times are bad, and we should rather expect, if prosperity ceases in New Zealand, that big landowners will find, the ; tendency of legislation to. be even more 'socialistic' than Mr. Seddon's. But it is idle to play with names and predictions. New Zealand is admittedly prosperous in spite of, if ,not because, of, Mr. Seddon's legislation, and, should that legislation , break down, its 'aims at any rate are generous." ": ; The Daily Telegraph says: "The British Empire has lost one of the statesmen whom it could least afford to spare. . : England has lost one of her most devoted sons. The totally unexpected and pathetic death of Mr. Seddon will awaken the siheerest regret in this country for very, few colonial statesmen have succeeded in netting hold of the British public as Mr. : Seddon did; none, with the exception of Cecil Rhodes, has ever appealed so vividly to the imagination of ; the British democracy. Richard Seddon, or 'King Dick,' as he was popularly'.called, was a man after the heart of the democracy of England. He was one of themselves, in a sense that Rhodes was not: He, was the architector, rather, the builder his own . fortunes; the racy character of ..the North of England, whence he sprang, was in every fibre of his being; he was a democrat of the type which is undistinguishable from the autocrat, except so far as the conventions of life are concerned he was a strong man, . delighting in his strength;- he was insatiable in his appetite for work; he never flinched from •bold experiment; he saw .through to" the bitter or happy end any - task to' which ; he - put his hand.. Throughout the length and breadth of the Empire, none had a clearer view than he of what the British Empire might become, and none worked more strenuously to make his dream a living fact. , We are, of those who; believe that a peculiarly brilliant future lie? before the ' Fortunate Islands' of,the southern seas; if that future is realised, the chiefest share of the praise will be due to Richard Seddon. It is early yet to forecast the issue of all those bold legislative experiments in socialism which have been the distinguishing . feature of New Zealand politics for the last dozen years or more. Even if they fail in partand it is already certain that they have 'succeeded in part they will serve the Empire as useful object lessons, when all proper allowances are made for the extreme ; variety of general conditions. But the most striking fact of Mr. Seddon's political'career is that for more than 13 . years be held the Premiership without a single break, and to all appearances would have gone on holding it for as long as he cared to do so. Before his time the Premiers of New Zealand were in office one day and were sone the next. Mr. Seddon stayed on. The colonial democracy did not tire of him. The political pendulum did not swing in New Zealand. The old reproach of the- fickleness of democracy had no application in one of the most eager young democracies the world has seen. . . _. We shall hope that some suitable memorial of so sturdy and stirring an En- , jjlishman may soon be raised in the country of his birth." ; ■■-.-;; " The Standard says:—"A great servant of the British Empire has been lost by the death of Mr. Seddon. Vivid as was ■■ his love for New Zealand, his devotion to the country he adopted did not weaken his affection for the land of his birth. ; To the day of his death he remained a* Englishman and a- Lancashire nun. •,••■;- His influence, over his own people was almost" unbounded. . Many detested his politics,.

many derided his speeches but they all admired bis cbai'actcr—simple, strong/" tad fearless. If his limitations ; were scarcely less remarkable than: his gifts, it may be doubted whether 1 ; his 1 defects were not; as useful to him as Jus ' qualities. '*, . He newer attempted or pretended to see two sides, of a question! He just made 'up his mind what he wanted, and went straights for it, sweeping as ; dc every obstacle r in his path. Nor did he ever hesitate about, speaking his opinion just because it happened to be' inconvenient to his friends. ... He possessed the two prim* qualities of statemanship, qualities which would hare raised him to a high place- if he had served a larger and more sophisticated community than the one which for 13 years gave him the control of its affairs. "First, he understood his people, and. secondly, he made them understand himself."

. " The death of Mr. Seddon,'* observes the Morning Post, '* deprives the Empire of a 'powerful driving force. A personality so strong as his will often express itself under the influence of deeply-felt convictions, in terms which seem extravagant to men who, by temperament or from ignorance of; the importance of the issues, are unable to blow either hot or cold. But if at times Mr. Secidcn 'seemed' to speak Imperialism through a. megaphone, he had not always wakeful listeners; and his message was important. Imperialism was the dominant idea of his life."

The Daily Chronicle says:" Ha had three supporting faiths—faith in bimrelf, faith in New Zealand, and faith in the British Empire. Such a* man who had played so conspicuous a part in public life deserves Imperial honour.*

Tne Daily Express says:—"Though the people of the Empire- have suffered a great loss by the death of Air. Seddon, they cannot mourn the ending of his career. He rose from poverty, worked hard and successfullyi for his country, earned the confidence, of his own people, and died, like a brave man, in harness, engaged to the last in Imperial work. Such are the life and death of the happy warrior, and all who loved or admired the man should feel today more. pride than grief."

The Westminster Gazette, says:—"The news of Mr. Seddon's sudden death at sea will be received with very sincere and gene-' ral regret. One of life's little ironies was the way in which in this country Mr. Seddon, who was at one time the awful example of what a Radical could be and do, afterwards became an Imperialist hero. Even so, however, ho showed his independence by the line he took on Chinese labour. His was a unique and picturesque person-' ality of great natural force. Next year's Colonial Conference will be very different with him no longer one of the colonial representatives."

The Pall Mall Gazette says: —" Every branch of the Imperial family will join with New Zealand in deploring the sudden death of Mr. Seddon. ' King Dick,' with his rough exterior, exuberant diction,.- and strong convictions, had caught the imagination of englishmen all me world over by a certain charm of character and disposition, which is absent from statesmen of greater profundity and polish.- Mr. Seddon's heart was in the right place, and. his instincts guided him along the lines of real 'service to the .Empire.' ,■■■''./

. The Daily Mail's verdict on Mr. Seddon is that "he endeavoured to reduce the inequalities of existence, to succour the poor, to aid the forlorn, to give to every man in New Zealand an . opportunity of earning an honest subsistence. His series of social reforms have made of : the colony which he governed the paradise of the working man, and if he -committed some serious mistakes, if in, certain details of finance he was not altogether fortunate, no great man can achieve anything noteworthy without a certain proportion of errors." The Paris Temps says: ' "His.sobriquet was an appropriate one . ' King,' 'Mr;"" Seddon WBis, and much more so in reality than many sovereigns. He took upon himself the work of departments of finance, Customs, post and telegraphs, native affairs, and labour, beside being Prime Minister, yet in each Department he exercised, a direct personal authority. He was a great administrator and bureaucrat, but a : bureaucrat who was always ready to leave his desk and throw himself into the stream of life; If the value of a man be measured by the intensity and efficacy of his acts, Richard Seddon is worthy of a place among the chosen few in the history of our epoch."