lifvifw of Hei'iew^ 



l/S/OU. 



Richard John Seddon. 



away before a host ot new measures. The ordinary 

 scope of politics, quite enough for ordinary men, 

 did not confine him; he, on the contrary, rose 

 constantly higher in search of wider horizons, bigger 

 fields of work, greater responsibilities and greater 

 successes. 



The amount of work he did is a thing staggering 

 to contemplate. Only less so is the wisdom he dis- 

 played 'in the selection of the lines of it ; and t.V 

 knowledge he acquired for the doing of it appeared 

 alvays the greatest part of the triple achievement. 

 Under the limitations of space, mere enumeration 

 is the only way to come near doing him justice. 

 For convenience the measures of his reign may be 

 divided roughly into three groups. 



Of these the first may be classed as of general 

 advantage. I'he Acts that strike attention on this 

 division are the Electoral Act which established 

 Adult Suffrage, the Acts which saved the Bank of 

 New Zealand at a critical- moment without, as it 

 has turned out in any way endangering the public 

 credit; the Acts regulating .the liquor traffic on the 

 basis of local option with assurance of adequate 

 voting strength; the Advances to Settlers" Acts, 

 which has eased the lot of thousands by reducing 

 the price of financial accommodation ; the Land for 

 Settlement Acts, which have placed thousands on 

 the settled lands of the country- in prosperity and 

 happiness never to be forgotten by those who .see 

 them; of all these it may be said with truth that 

 their passage was stormy and protracted. To this 

 division belong the measures passed for drawing 

 closer the Imperial relations -the Naval Defence, 

 the Preferential Trade and the Coastwise Trade 

 Acts. There is a PubKc Heahh Act comparing 

 favourably with anything of the kimi extant else- 

 where, and a huge Shipping and Seamen Act, which 

 is acknowledged to be the first in Australasia. 



The second group may be termed, roughly speak- 

 ing, Domestic. It comprises Land Drainage ai.d 

 Water Supply Acts, an Act for securing all avail- 

 able water powers to the State, Education Acts 

 which secure to the teachers a substantia! superan- 

 nuation allowance, and have opened the whole line 

 of education from Primarv School to University to 

 the children of the poorest in the land ; Technical 

 Instruction Acts which are opening schools and 

 classes everywhere in increasing numbers with 

 rapidly increasmg attendance ; Acts for regulating 

 slaughtering and managing abattoirs under Munici- 

 pal rule ; Acts for the protection of family homes 

 and the families of testators : Acts for the increase 

 of the salaries of Judges, Ministers, members of 

 Parliament, and last, but not least, of His Excellency 

 the Governor — all necessary after the economies of 

 the past and in the presence of the present increased 

 cost of living. 



The third group is the grnu]) of Labour measures. 

 At its head easiK first stand the Industrial Concilia- 



tion and Arbitration Acts, the instrument — it is 

 claimed in New Zealand and to a large extent out- 

 S'de also — which has made this the "land without 

 strikes." Only the other day Mr. Seildon summed 

 up the results first the Act was passed in 1894 — 

 In declaring that it has organised both Labour 

 and Capital, settled nian\ problems by friendly ad- 

 justment, and given safe investment to a vast quan- 

 titv of capital. Next in importance is the Old Age 

 Pensions Act. In addition there are Acts for the 

 protection of the wages of workmen, for their com- 

 pensation in case of accident, for insurance in mat- 

 ter of the liability of employers, for the inspection 

 of machinery, for the building of dwellings for the 

 v.orkers, for lease or acquisition at moderate rates, 

 for regulating the hours and conditions of those who 

 work in shops, for insuring the payment of wages 

 to boys and girls in factories and shops, for regulat- 

 ing the kauri gum industr\ to or the advantage of 

 the subjects ot His Majesty the King of these 

 realms, and for a host of other matters too numerous 

 for detailed mention here. 



These three divisions are the record of the 

 •• .something done " which bulks so large in the re- 

 cord of this Premiership; the record of the '■some- 

 thing attempted '' is also huge. And for the things 

 done that are not of legislation, but nevertheless of 

 Parliamentarv importance and inilividual stress, who 

 shall undertake to tell their numbers in less than a 

 volume. Greatest of these latter is the story of 

 the Contingents sent to Africa on his initiative. 

 Sir Henry Parkes invented the phrase about the 

 crimson thread of kinship. Richard Seddon proved 

 the correctness of that famous pronouncement by a 

 great practical Tinperial policy, of which the Empire 

 heartily approved. 



How Richard Seddon travelled to Africa, con- 

 quered all hearts there, how he was received by the 

 people of Britain and honoured, how he captured 

 Australia after several visits, and how magnificent 

 his success in all these countries, is matter of com- 

 mon knowledge everywhere. It is noteworthy that 

 the reception in his own native place was not a whit 

 more hearty than the reception he had in dozens 

 of others. 'These are all the links of a stupendous 

 chain of success. He bulked as large in the car- 

 toons of the Empire as the greatest of the states- 

 men of the Empire, an3 that is not the fate of 

 every man. No colonial has ever attained it. These 

 successes were as complete as those obtained in his 

 own country, and that was the most extraordinary 

 feature in the whole of the remarkable career of 

 that most remarkable man, Richard John Seddon ; 

 for the successes of him in his own country were 

 prodigious. 



What was the secret that enabled this man to 

 carry everytiiing an<l everyone before him? Mr. 



