SEDDON, RICHARD JOHN (1845-1906)

This article appears in Volume V24, Page 577 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SCY-SHA

SEDDON, RICHARD JOHN (1845-1906) , New Zealand statesman, was born at Eccleston, Lancashire, England, in 1845, his father being a schoolmaster at Eccleston Hill school. He was brought up to the engineering trade, and when eighteen went to Australia and entered the railway workshops at Melbourne. He was caught by the " gold fever " and went to Bendigo, where he spent some time in the diggings; but in 1866 he joined an uncle on the west

coast

COAST (from Lat. costa, a rib, side)

of New Zealand, starting

work

WORK

as a miner. In 1869 he married Miss Louisa Jane

Spotswood

SPOTSWOOD (SPOTTSwooD or SPOTTISwOOD), ALEXANDER (1676-1940)

, of Melbourne. In the same year he was elected to a seat on his local Road Board, and he was soon returned to the Westland Provincial Council for the Arahura

district

DISTRICT

, becoming its first chairman of committees. In 1879 he was returned to the New Zealand

parliament

PARLIAMENT (Anglo-Lat. parliamentum, Fr. parlement, from parler, to speak)

for Kumara, and sat for that constituency for twenty-six years, though its name was changed. to Westland. He was a member of the Ballance ministry (1891), holding the portfolios for public works, defence and mines; and on Ballance's death (1893) became premier, a position he retained till his sudden death on the loth of June 1906. During these years Seddon held a unique place in the public life of New Zealand, and in its relations with the empire. He combined his premiership with various officesas colonial treasurer, minister for education, postmaster-general, telegraph

commissioner

COMMISSIONER

, minister of marine, minister for land purchase, and minister for labour,but his strenuous personality, and the confidence inspired by his determination to make New Zealand a living force among the British dominions, were the dominating features in all his course of action. His large physique, his profound earnestness, his

gift

GIFT (a common Teutonic word, cf. Ger. die Gift, gift, das Gift, poison, formed from the Teut. stem gab-, to give, cf. Dutch geven, Ger. geben; in O. Eng. the word appears with initial y, the guttural of later English is due to Scandinavian influence)

of popular oratory, his expansive kindliness and his power of dealing with men, made him supreme among his own people. He became known in a wider sphere after his attending the colonial conference in London in 1897, and thenceforth he was regarded as one of the pillars of British imperialism. During the Boer War, and afterwards in the

movement

MOVEMENT

for preferential trade with the colonies, he was an enthusiastic supporter of Mr

Chamberlain

, though he was characteristically outspoken in opposition to the introduction of Chinese labour into

South

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

Africa. His rough and ready views were frequently open to criticism, but his vigorous patriotism and intensity of character give hima permanent place among those who have worked for the consolidation of the British dominions.
A Life, by J. Drummond, was published in 1907.

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