An American's Appreciation.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 26, 30 June 1906, Page 14

An American's Appreciation.

THE WORDS OF A DEMOCRAT. < Inc of the most eloquent of the appreeiations of the dead Premier is that penned by the late Henry Demarest Lloyd, himself a democrat of democrats, and an intensely earnest reformer. These are the words in which he describes Mr. Seddon in •'Newest England”:— ■‘The Honourable Richard J. Seddon, now Premier cf New Zealand, was the first Minister of Public Works in the new regime. He bad been a working man, and he is of that not too common type of rising man, one who docs not rise out of remembrance cf the lot of those he leaves liehind him. The most democratic country is the one which has the greatest political stability. The Liberal Party now in power in New Zealand hns had the administration in its hands since the election of 18IW, and

the present Premier lias been at its head since 1803. The election of 1900 ensures his tenure until 1903, unless he or his party break down. This is a r<s-ord not to lie matched by the leader of any other democracy of the day, except Mexieo, and Mexico is not so much a democracy as an autocracy tempered by the greatness of the autocrat Diaz. The present Liberal regime in New Zealand is the farthest possible from resembling the one-man power that has given to Mexieo so long a stretch of prosperity. But there can be no doubt that the personality of -Mr. Seddon has been a factor of calculable importance in the achievements with which New Zealand to-day challenges the attention of the world. Mr. Seddon towered among the Australasian Premiers at the Queen's Jubilee, and they were all notable men. He alone of them survives politically. Of sturdy Lancashire farming stock, young Seddon ehose an engineer's trade, and, with a Board of Trade certificate of his capability, arrived in Victoria in 18(13, eighteen years of age. The goldfields of Bendigo, and later the West Coast gold discoveries of New Zealand, in 186(1, offered him chances of fortune, and New Zealand made its promise good. Any miner he saw at the mercy of a bully was sure of a champion in Digger Diek. He became a miners’ advocate before the wardens win: had the decision of mining disputes. Most miners dig down, Digger Diek dug up. He made himself the head of a successful mercantile business. He became a member of Road Boards and Provincial Councils, and of the Board of Education; he was elected Mayor of Kumara, and in 1879 a member of Parliament. He has remained in Parliament from then to now, and is the only member who has that record of continuous service. lie is the lather as well as the leader of Parliament. Men and affairs have been his books, life his school, the House of Representatives his university. When the Liberal Party came in he was made Minister of Public Works by Ballance. When Ballance died at a moment so untimely that it almost seemed as if the Liberal cause must die with him, Seddon was called by the party to its head, where he has ever sinee remained. He is fond of describing himself as the Premier of the paradise of the British Empire. No one knows the political value of an idea or a man as Seddon does. His mind and his body are both remarkable. It was said of Daniel Webster that he was a steam-engine in trousers. Mr. Seddon is more than that, as becomes his later date: he is a dynamo. In addition to an extraordinary equipment of intellectual and physical vigour, he has an inborn sympathy with the people and all that concerns them. Some statesmen have democracy thrust upon them, a

few achieve it, one or two in a century get it by heart or by ear. Seddon is a born demoerat. He and the Honourable C. C. Kingston, Premier of South Australia when I was there, are two as

line figures as one can see anywhere among the steersmen of ships of State. Both are equally true to the cause of progress and the people, but they are totally different types. Seddon is a new man, fresh from the multitude. Kingston has a distinguished family record to live up to. Seddon is a democratic democrat; Kingston an aristocratic demoerat. Seddon sa solid with the working men for his unvarying ehampionship of them from the earliest days. He is solid with the country ]H>ople for (lie tenacity with which he has fought for their land and tax ami money reforms. He is solid' with the progressives for the courage and initiative of his radicalism. Seddon is always in the advance. It would not have been surprising, after the rapid onward

march of the last ten years, if he had wanted to rest on his laurels. But all through the last campaign he was throwing nut intimations of a still more forward poliey. He does not hesitate to assure the great landlords that they may expect still heavier taxation. He has warned the coal-rings that he is ready if necessary to put the State into the coal business, ami the shipping ring that he will favour the nationalisation of steamships if needed to curb their exactions. He is not a statesman of one idea, not even of so good an idea as democracy. When 1 asked him how the countless things were going to get themselves done which ought not to be left to competition, but could not lie done by the State because, not even in New Zealand, is the State far enough advanced to undertake them, he replied, ‘Co-opera-tion will take care of them.’ Though lie has probably never had time to read a book on co-operation, he reached by intuition the conclusion which is developing in the minds of our best political philosophers, that co-operative and democratic industry are the two hemispheres which will make up the social world of the future. While waiting for the nationalisation of the eoal mines, he leases a mine under the control of the State to a coalminers’ trade union to be worked co-operatively. Seddon is strong with men and women alike, and he softens the antagonism even of political opponents by a policy which he expresses in a favourite phrase, We must take a kindly view of human nature.’ His defence of the old-age pension and the co-operative works and other humanitarian measures is always touched by a tender sympathy for the old and unfortunate. Though a paragon of physical strength, he is never ashamed to show that sentiment plays a large part in his views of public matters, and (hat he has a head that feels and a heart that thinks.’’