Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1893.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4497, 15 August 1893, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1893.

It is curious that when ut man comes to the top of the jditical tree m New Zealand he begins to look round for a soft spot to fall on, He is ready to hecome an Agent-General, a Speaker of a House, or an Auditor-General. He is prepared to let go bis hold provided he can fall on bis feet in some highly honorable, and well paid billet, which has the element of permanency. There are no Premiers of the ostfibre of Sit -John Hall, Sir William Fox, or the Hon. G, M. Waterhouse nowadays. These old time leaders when tbey gave up office retired simply into private life, Tbey were men of independent means, aud the necessity of providing themselves with b,!!ets to fall back on did not arise. The Premiers of the present i decade are professional political, who cannot afford to give up power without some kind of compensation. But why should a man like Mr Seddon desire lo give up the Premiership seeing that he has only enjoyed the position for a few months ? The probability iB that the strain of work and responsibility is killing him as it has killed others before him, He is said to possess an iron constitution, but even this will in time give way if overtaxed. He is not the man to take things quietly and easily, on the contrary he ia one who worries. The last rung of the ladder came to him by an accident, before he was fitted to climb it. Possibly he may not desire to abandon bis post as Premier but we fcbould not be at all surprised to find that he is sick of it. He bad a perfect right to take the position but be has missed his opportunityof proving himself a statesman. Instead of giving himself some leisure to think out leading public questions he baa rattled along by a sort of rule of thumb, skipping about inalldirectioris and never clearly seeing the course ou which he was proceeding. Be possesses plenty of good sense and might have made an abb, Premier had be given himself no reasonable opportunity of displaying statesmanship,