went to make him the loveable man that he was. Instances of his tender-heartedness, his overflowing good-nature, even to those with whom he had at one time or other “differences,” will occur to everyone who knew him. Above all, the children loved the old man, and this love of the children is perhaps a finer testimony of worth than the esteem of older people. In his life-work, Mr. Seddon, it is scarcely necessary to tell New Zealanders, toiled like a very horse. He never gave himself a rest, nor did he allow others to rest. His love of work, of action, of public speaking, killed him in his prime, but it could not have been otherwise. A life of leisured and luxurious inactivity he could never have endured.
Physically powerful, vigorous, and imposing, with a keen and fearless eye, Mr. Seddon was a man who compelled respect and attention whenever and wherever he spoke. There was a stern and fighting glint in his clear straight eyes that said, as Carlyle said of the Abbot Samson, “Let all sluggards and cowards, remiss, false-spoken, unjust, and otherwise diabolic persons, have a care; this is a dangerous man for them.” And as the sage has written elsewhere of that same grave old Abbot, it could with exactitude be said here of my old chief, that he was “a skilful man; full of cunning insight, lively interests; always discerning the road to his object, be it circuit, be it short-cut, and victoriously travelling forward thereon.”
Probably the best monument to a departed statesman is a faithful, sympathetic record of his life and works. In this book Mr. Drummond has given such a record, and it is one that I trust will be widely read, and that will faithfully preserve for those who come after us the memory of a truly great man, and a man whose influence has irrevocably moulded for good the fortunes of our country, New Zealand.
- Wellington,
- 29th December, 1906.
