MEMORIAL TO THE PREMIER'S MOTHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2310, 9 June 1898, Page 20

MEMORIAL TO THE PREMIER'S MOTHER.

■ Our London- correspondent in his last letter jaiade a brief reference to the visit made to St. ' Helen's, Lancashire, by Mr W. P. Reeves to mnveil a mural tablet which had just been erected In tbs> principal Primitive Methodist chapel of that town by direction of the Premier of New Zealand .to the memory of his mother," the late flfrg Seddon. From a paper bo band we learn that the tablet is of white m&rble fixed in the ■wall near the doors, and bears the inscription s — < *'In effectioofcte remembrance of Jean, the ' beloved wife of Thoma* Seddnn, schoolmaster, ISeoleston, aod mother of the Right Hon. R. J. i Seddon. Nei* Zealand (1816-1868)." Then '

follows a verse of the hymn beginning " I cams to Jesus as I was, weary and^vorn and sad." Mr Reeves made a felicitous speech, in the oourss of which he said th*t be never knew the good woman to whose memory that tablet had been erected, but he h&d heard of her, of her nature, of ths life she led, of her faith, and of the example she showed, and he knew' perhaps better than most, the son whom she gave to New Zealand. — (Applause.) That son held & position by the will of his fellow colonists, not only of distinction, but of considerable influence and of very great responsibility ; because although a very distanb and beautiful country of which he was the Premier was at present peopled by a handful o£ people, scarcely 800,000, looking forward into the not very disnant future they-knew that

on the foundation stones being laid to-day would be erected a great, a stately, and an imperial structure — (applause), — and that the responsibility was very great on those .to whom was entrusted the lajiDg oil the foundation slones. After referring to the' lot of the poor in England a generation ago, and the feeling which caused men and women to emigrate towards a promised land, Mr Reeves went on to say thab unleßs they had the moral and upright qualities which distinguished good men and women, all the laws and institutions in the world wouid not build np anything like a perfect State. — (Applause.) It was to the good mothers of numbers of sterling mea tuafc they had to look for those qualities that wera to build up the daughter nations of Britain. It was to vt omen like the .good woman

to whose memory fch&fc tablet was being unveiled I that they had to look for those qualities. I Warmly could he echo th 3 words juafc spoken, "Thank Grid for good women." Inasmuch xb the Prime Minister of New Zealand iuherifced from his mother qualities of courage, of earnestness, of industry, and of dogged British determination of character, he thought the people of New Zealand owed no small debt of gratitude j to the mother of the statesman whom they had chosen to rule over them. It has been decided to nut a stop to monster surprise parties at ths Wellington Benevolent Home. Ostensibly got up to cheer the inmates, they are found a nuisance when 150 couples stay and dance till midnight.