EARLY LIFE.

New Zealand Graphic, 27 June 1906, Page 25

EARLY LIFE.

In dealing with Mr. Seddon’s early life, the most important source of information is an autobiographical sketch contributed by him to “M.A.P.” four years ago. From thia record we learn that he was born at Eecleston, near St. Helens, I an cash ire, on June 22, IMS. His father belonged to one of the oldest families in Lancashire, and was for a quarter of a century headmaster of the Eecleston Hill Common, or Grammar, School. His mother, whose maiden name was Lindsay, was born at Asuan, a little town in Dumfriesshire. Both his father and mother belonged to families interested in farming and agriculture. His mother was a school teacher. and previous to her marriage was mistress of the Denominational school at Eecleston. Her marriage with Mr. Seddon’s father solved the educational dilheulty of the district, and the rivalry between the two schools ended in the closing of the one formerly conducted by Miss Lindsay, and the subsequent success of the school under his father's direction. A few details regarding the borne life of the boy may not be without interest, as serving to show that Mr. Seddon’s early days were passed under conditions very different from those which obtain in a young country as yet unburdened with a history. The house in which the late Premier was born stands on Eecleston Hill.

just outside Vie town of St. Helen-*. and is a little ivy-ewvred cottage. It waa built in 1684—some say 1607—and has a history which, though njt as dear as ■ might be, is interesting. Curious stones have been found in the garden and vicinity, and formerly a large collection included stones with carvings and inscriptions thereon, ns well as a fine old cross, which has now been missing for several years. The fact that these stones were found here goes to support the idea that the garden and other parts of the land once formed a burial ground. Indeed, two or three decades ago the “oldest inhabitant-*" could tell of funerals taking place there. Tba burial ground is believed to have been connected with the Roman Caholie mission which existed at what is now known as Scholes Farm, Eceleston. Tradition further preserves the story that there was an underground passage from the Scholes Farm to the burial ground, this passage being used in the days when Roman Catholics suffered some persecution. Mr. Seddon, on his last visit to London, told a representative of “M.A.r..” that while planting flowers near the playground of the school one of the old gravestones dropped below the surface. “This,” said Mr. Seddon, “was held as proof positive of the existence of the subterranean passage, but to me the incident did not carry complete conviction. It was suggested to fill up the note and leave matters as they were, but I was of another mind, and started to explore with a spade. After a very little time my labour came to a sudden end, for I unceremoniously disappeared from view, having dropped into one of the unknown vaults of the old abbey.” It is not easy to imagine Richard Seddon as a very submissive or manageable boy; and according to Mr. W. whose “Portraits of Parliament” were published in 1900, he was always very difficult to deai with. “Dick.” says the writer, “appear, to have been a ‘handful’ from his earliest infancy. His father destined him to pose as a “possible’ to the other boys in the matter of industrious application to study. Dick, however, had other views, which embraced outdoor games in great variety, while he set up records in all the legitimate athletics of the playground.” But though Mr. Seddon never posed as a highly educated man. it is entirely a mistake to suppose that he was in this respeet below the average of bis content*poraries. ‘‘lt has been represented," he once said, “that I am quite an illiterate man, but, while disavowing all claim to academic distinction. I may here say that 1 received a good, sound, piactical education, and that I made reasonable vse of the opportunties afforded me.” He never showed any wish to follow the calling of Ute father and mother; i-t.il the only subject in which he showed unusual proficiency was mechanical drawing, for which lie received a prize—an evidence of the tastoo that afterwards led him to adopt engineering as a pursuit. “In my fatlier's s,-booL” he told Mr. T. P. O’Connor, “I was one of a number of boys who were taught extra subjects, and after a time I came to regard it as liule short of despotism that I should be kept indoors struggling with fatten while most of tlie boys were in IUo open playing at different games. I expostulated by not learning my lessen, with the usual result that might be expected from a schoolmaster, especially when iite own son was at fault.” The natural outcome of this conflict was that when the boys grandfather opportunely appeared with an offer to take the lad on to his farm for a time, the invito*tion was gladly accepted. But though his family came of a gr-od old farming stock -—and Mr. Seddon has never lost the sympathy for country life which his origin might suggest—his natural tastes ran in another direction; and in 1*59, at the age of 14, he was apprenticed to Messrs. Dalgleish and Co., engineers rnd ironfounders, of St. Helens, for the ordinary term of five years.