A fellow member tells how he once saw Mr. Seddon reading a book in the Assembly Library. Anxious to ascertain what had engaged his attention, the member waited until he had put it down, when he found that it dealt with the exploits of pirates on the Spanish Main.
What impressed his fellow members most was the wonderful energy he put into everything he took in hand. He never spared himself. He never seemed to need to do so. Apparently, it was quite impossible to tire him. He soon learned the forms of the House by heart, and it was not long before none knew better than he how to observe them, and, occasionally, how to break them. This knowledge gave him a rather formidable aspect as far as the Speaker and Chairman of Committees were concerned, and he sometimes gave them a trying time.
He was no orator. He did not stop to pick and choose his sentences. They came in a full flood of tumbling words, rushing along with a great sound, like many waters. There could have been no more striking contrast than that of his speeches and those of his old friend, Sir George Grey. It was on the subject rather than the method of expression that he relied for effect. He missed no points, and seldom made a weak one. His knowledge of details was enormous. The masses of particulars he dealt with tended to make his speeches heavy. Had he generalised more he would have been listened to in the House with greater pleasure. He felt, however, that he was there not to supply amusement, but to work. His public duties and the affairs of the country seemed to him to be the last things to be treated lightly. He had no sympathy with those who regarded politics as a pastime.
As he sat in the House in his first years and listened to the debates, he often wondered why he was there, and what he was to do to help in making the colony’s laws. Throughout this part of his career, however, he always heard the West Coast calling to him. He continually reminded himself that it was the people of the Coast who had sent him to Parliament, and that his first duty was to them, and his second duty to the rest of New Zealand.
