THE SUPREME MOMENT—THE PREMIER.

New Zealand Graphic, 27 June 1906, Page 31

THE SUPREME MOMENT—THE PREMIER.

Then came a great calamity to overshadow with gloom the triumph of the Liberals. The strain of Ministerial responsibility proved too heavy for Mr. Ballance, and on April 27th, 1893, he died; killed by overwork as unmistakably as his great successor. But during the two years for which Mr. Seddon and Mr. Ballanee had been colleagues, the Premier had come to appreciate, even more highly than b- fore, the strength and resourcefulness of “the man from Westland.” It was to Mr. Seddon that Mr. Ballance looked in the hour of weakness and despondency; it was Mr. Seddon who was appointed Acting-Premier during the last months ci his lamented leader's slow decline: and it was to Mr. Seddon that the Cabinet and the country instinctively turned as the Liberal chiefs natural successor. But the position was by no means easy to face; and it was complicated by the rival claims of at least on a distinguished politician of longer Parliamentary and Ministerial experience than the Acting-Premier. And there was another factor in the situation which probably few men appreciated at the time, -and to whieh few have attache! sufficient importance since. Mr. Seddon was always a self-eonfident man; but at the supreme moment of his career he seems to hare been oppressed by a sense of tbe trerv ndous responsibilities that he was now called upon to sustain. In spite of all that he had achieved, he could hardly fail to remember, at such a moment as this, the disadvantages under which he had laboured all through his career, or to reflect upon tha difficulties that must beset his path if he, a man of the people, unsupported by wealth, distinguished associations, or powerful vested interests, should essay ths portentous task of ruling at once a Cabinet and a country. In his perplexity hs turned to the man from whom in past years he had drawn much of his inspiration, and whom he had followed through good and evil report with unflinching fidelity. But Mr. Seddon has told the history of this episode for himself. At the great public celebration of the Record Pfemierabip at Wellington in'l9o3, the Premier revealed to his audience the eircumsaam-es under whieh he accepted the offii-c left vacant by Mr. Ballance, r At the time Mr. Ballance waa called away by death.” runs the report of the speech, "he (Mr. Seddon > received a communication which he bad n >t before given to the people, but which threw a flood ef light upon his action in taking tha high and responsible position he was asked to take in 1393. The communication was a* follows:—‘You have fairly gained the chance; form Ministry if you enn. but good; if not good, have nothing to do with it. Five are enough tc start. If therm is any difficulty, others will soon join you. You will have an opportunity of greatly, serving your fellow men. Do it. You have the capacity, do not shrink. All you

have to do now is to say you will try to form a Ministry, and I believe you can.— George Grey.”' (Cheers.) As they knew, it was rumoured at that time that he hesitated, and he then received the following "You are acting in a great crisis, such as makes a hero. Act with your Maker for the good of His creatures. What anyone else may say or do is nothing to you. The millions of your fellow-men and their Maker —let these be your thoughts. Be brave, unselfish, gentle, but resolute for good. Reflect well before acting; gain time for thought. The good will soon gather round you. —George Grey.’’ "This,” said Mr. Seddon, “was on the morning of the Ist May, 1893, and that evening I was sworn in as Prime Minister of this country.” The story is strikingly characteristic of the two men; for it suggests in every line the deep earnestness of conviction that inspired them both, and the ardent enthusiasm for public duty, rising almost to the level of religious feeling, by which “the great pro-Consul” and his greatest successor were sustained throughout all the toils and vicissitudes of their laborious lives.