THE DIAMOND JUBILEE.

New Zealand Graphic, 27 June 1906, Page 34

THE DIAMOND JUBILEE.

To understand the part played by Mr. Seddon at the Jubilee Celebrations, we have to remember not only the forceful personality of the man, but the magnitude of the work that he had already accomplished. Mr. Seddon is infinitely better known the world over, to-day, than he was nine years ago; but even before 1897 the fame of New Zealand had gone abroad as tlie home of a newly-invented Radicalism, by virtue of which the workers were rapidly securing the rights for whieh in other lands they still sighed in vain. The name of Mr. Seddon as the leader of the little band of statesmen who were thus setting all political traditions at nought, had already become familiar, not only to British wage-earners, but to British statesmen and publicists; and when our Premier reached London, his advent was awaited with a certain amount of pardonable curiosity. Those who met him, or heard his speeches and read the reports of the numerous interviews which he granted, were soon satisfied that his reputation had not belied him. The, impressive bearing, the keen glance, the powerful voice, the manifest strength and will power of the man, his freedom from restraint or convention, his fearless courage in the expression of his opinions, limited only by an earnest and enthusiastic patriotism—all these features have long been familiar to us, but they came as something of a revelation to the people who met Mr. Seddon at Home. From the day of his first appearance in London, he diverted publie attention from the other colonial statesmen, and concen-

trated it upon himself. Only Sir Wilfrid Laurier, a man of an entirely different type, but akin to the Premier in his fervid Imperialistic patriotism, could hope ta compete with “Digger Dick” in popular esteem;-and at the Imperial Conference, which was one of the most important features of the celebrations, not even the wellbalanced periods of the polished and eloquent Prime Minister of Canada carried sa much weight as the less courtly, but more forceful and virile utterances of Mr. Seddon.