Review of Revieirs. 1/7/06. 



In Mem*: Richard John Seddon, P.C. 



(nth June, just as we go to press.) 



" Mr. Seddon is dead !'' " Impossible I" was the 

 statement made and answered incredulously by thou- 

 sands of people on Monday, the nth June. The 

 news that he had peacefully and quietly died of heart 

 failure at 6 o'clock on the prexious evening, the loth 

 June, on the " Oswestry Grange." about 150 miles out 

 from Sydney, was paralysing. One simply stared at 

 his informant. Surely never did death seem such an 

 utterly impossible thing. To those who had shaken 

 his hand, listened to his speeches, seen him move 

 with the alertness of a youth, it was simply unbeliev- 

 able. The tall, erect giant of the forest had fallen 

 at a blow. 



At the very date of his death he was filling the 

 eye of Australasia as he had never done before. To 

 everyone in New Zealand he was, of course, known 

 as very few heads of Governments have been known 

 to their pyeople, but to Australians he was only known 

 by repute as a Premier who filled up the whole hori- 

 zon New Zealandwards. His visit had therefore 

 made him a very real personage to Australians. He 

 strode into Australian life like a Colossus. During 

 his short visit he was treated in an almost regal 

 fashion. Reporters hung round him, and reported 

 his views or convictions until the newspapers almost 

 burst with the plethora of copy which they gained. 

 And both in speech and journalism the finest spirit 

 was displayed. It was recognised that the opinions 

 he expressed were not hypercritical, hut given in the 

 friendliest of ways. His ad\ice was courteously ac- 

 cepted, as it was courteously given. 



To Australians the prominent figure in New 

 Zealand was always Mr. Seddon. One thought 

 of him and the country as though they were in a 

 sense convertible terms. Although in New Zealand 

 the Government was looked upon as a one-man Gov- 

 ernment, yet the extent to which Mr. Seddon was 

 regarded as the one man who controlled things could 

 only be realised by a resident of Australia. There 

 was the fact, whatever personal feelings about it 

 may have been. 



And his visit to Australia accentuated the impres- 

 sion of him. Whatever may have been the opinions 

 of parties regarding local politics, his utterances 

 upon everything that he spoke on with regard to 

 things Australian were beyond cavil, displaying a 

 breadth of thought and a sturdy common sense that 

 appealed to all parties here. 



Australians can therefore share in the sorrow of 

 New Zealand in a way that would have been im- 

 possible had he not just visited it. The blow struck 



far deeper than would otherwise have been the case. 

 We feel we have a personal interest in the grief of 

 our sister colony, and it is a pleasure, though a 

 mournful one, to feel that we have been able to 

 show som.'? little kindness to his bereaved ones. 



New Zealand without Mr. Seddon will be almost 

 incomprehensible. It is to be hoped that whoever 

 succeeds him will keep the car of state running on 

 the same progressive lines. Autocratic Mr. Seddon 

 was, to a degree. So, to a greater or less degree, is 

 every strong man who is inspired with a conviction 

 and who knows his strength. He was a giant, a 

 statesmen with abilities of the highest order. He 

 played with ease with the ordinary man. His career 

 was a marvel. With little educational advantage, 

 he rose to a position which made him one of the 

 most picturesque men in the British Empire. But 

 he was " a thorough Democrat," to quote almost the 

 last words he spoke to me on the Thursday before 

 his death. His legislation was essentially for the 

 people. He was seized with the possibilities of his 

 country as few are. He believed in it absolutely. 

 To him it was " God's own country," an expression 

 which has now a pathetic interest. In a telegram 

 which he sent to Mr. Bent on his leaving Sydney, 

 and not received by Mr. Bent until after he had 

 heard news of the sudden death, Mr. Seddon had 

 said, among other things, " Leaving for God's own 

 country." How true it was no one dreamed. 



To New Zealand the heart of Australia goes out 

 in deepest sympathy. Australia is glad that she had 

 an opportunity of entertaining Mr. Seddon. We are 

 thankful that we were able to pay our respects to 

 him, irrespective of the fact that some of the things 

 he set in motion while he was here, we in Australia 

 will reap much benefit from. 



His death was of the kind that reformers every- 

 where can yearn for,' coming right in the midst of 

 life, allowing of no idle time and no long-drawn-out 

 pain. To work right up to the moment of death, 

 every moment utilised to the full, is an experience 

 that we who work for the common good may de- 

 voutly pray for. It was a fitting close to his career, 

 strikingly like it in some respects, unexpected, al- 

 most dramatic in the simplicity of it, and the mn-^- 

 ner of it, startlingly sudden, the last surprise of a 

 life that politically has been one long series of 

 surprises to the people whom he has so long, so ar- 

 dently, and so ablv governed. 



(The History of the Month I had written days 

 before Mr. Seddon's death, and when the news of it 

 arrived it was too late to alter it, even if I had 

 wished. But not a word does need altering.) 



