HIS FIRST SPEECH.

New Zealand Graphic, 27 June 1906, Page 29

HIS FIRST SPEECH.

Mr. Seddon’s first speech was delivered at the Duke of Edinburgh Theatre, Hokitika. In it he clearly expounded the line of policy he wished the country to adopt, and it should be observed that throughout his public career he followed closely the general principles which he then laid down. “I am not a stranger among you,” he told his audience, “neither do I come without credentials.” He was, indeed, well known to all present, and he left no room for doubt as to the tone and character of his political opinions. But whether they called him Liberal or Radical, he assured his audience that his allegiance was due to Sir George Grey, “the only statesman in New Zealand fit to lead.”

The main features of the speech are easily summarised in the light of subsequent events; in fact, it is hardly too much to say that Mr. Seddon might, with perfect consistency, have delivered it at any period of his career. Manhood suffrage, fair taxation, and land settlement, were among the chief reforms indicated, while a great deal of attention was devoted to the necessity for breaking up the large estates that then impeded the country’s growth; for reforming the Legislative Council, for establishing a sound system of local government, and for excluding the Chinese. Naturally enough, the speaker appealed to the sympathies and prejudices of his hearers, and we can imagine the satisfaction with which his audience heard him declare that miners were more intelligent than any other class of electors; that he would rather be judged by a mining constituency than by any other body of voters; and that, in their hands, manhood suffrage would be a weapon fatal to the privileges and monopolies with which the predominance of the Conservative party was identified.

Even at this early stage of his public career Mr. Seddon showed his capacity for dealing with figures, and more especially with the confusing and elusive statistics of finance. He had prepared himself for his chosen work by careful study of the public records, and he had made up his mind as to the question of public expenditure. On this vexed subject he declared his views with the uncompromising boldness that has always been one of his most impressive characteristics. “Six million pounds a year,” he said, “are required to carry on the Government, and eight million pounds are imported from the Old Country. The public debt amounts to £2O per head of population in blew South Wales, £23 in Victoria, and no less than £62 10s. in New Zealand. I maintain that the colony has been pursuing an unsound policy.” During the earlier years of his career—as the first speech that he delivered in Parliament plainly shows—Mr. Seddon was generally inclined to admit his inexperience in public affairs, and to grant precedence to older politicians in the expression of their views. But on the West Coast, among his own people, “Digger Dick” was prepared to pronounce final judgment on all conceivable subjects; and it is without surprise that we find him settling the Maori question off-hand in a few vigorous sentences. Needless to say, his view was matter-of-fact and businesslike in the extreme: “The colony, instead of importing Gatling guns with which to fight the Maori, should wage war with locomotives. Perhaps, on account of my inexperience, I take a superficial view of the Native difficulty; but I firmly believe that an outbreak of hostilities among the Maoris cannot be stopped in a better way than by pushing through the country first roads and then railways.” There was the same direct and straightforward energy manifested in his remarks about Chinese immigration—a question then of very serious importance to all colonial mining communities. "I do not think that the Chinese are desirable colonists. They are a nuisance in California, Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland. There has been restriction on their immigration to those places, and New Zealand, unless she wishes her shores to be deluged by Asiatic Tartars, must follow suit. 1 would sooner address white men than these Chinese. You can't talk to them. You can’t reason with them. All you can get from them is, ‘No savee.’ They are a hard pill to swallow.” Not much statesmanship in this view of the case, perhaps, but a great deal of the somewhat dogmatic and very intelligible common sense which always appeals to a popular audience; and we can easily imagine how the resonant voice and the heavy hand drove home such points as these upon the imagination of the eager listeners.

The most interesting feature of this speech is the point on which we have already dwelt—tlie consistency that it reveals in Mr. Seddon’s political ideas. His views developed greatly within the following thirty years, but the germ of practiealty all that he valued most highly in his public policy is to be found in that initial speech. Then, as in 1906, he believed in manhood suffrage, the settlement of the land, the breaking up of large estates, exclusion of Chinese, and fair taxation. Then, as now, the hearts of the people went out towards the leader who stated their needs so boldly and interpreted their wishes so accurately. “It is on record in the local newspapers,” says the “Lyttelton Times,"’ “which, like other institutions, were then in their days of small things, that the speech was followed by ‘loud and prolonged applause.’ After the candidate had replied to a

number of questions, ‘some of them intended to be of a facetious character,' Mr. Tait said that none of the other candidates had expressed his views more ably and thoroughly, and he moved that Mr. Seddon was a fit and proper person to represent them in Parliament. Mr. T. A. Learmouth seconded the motion, which was put and carried almost unanimously, amidst much cheering and a few groans.