became not only a member of the County Council, but also its chairman.
The Road Board’s affairs had been badly managed. Besides that, local government in New Zealand was not on a good basis in those days, and local bodies’ powers and responsibilities were greatly restricted.
The older members of the Board, who were well acquainted with Mr. Seddon’s capacity for making trouble where things were not done to his liking, did not look upon his success with a favourable eye. They recognised that he had been elected to the Board to urge them on. In order to secure some kind of revenge for the mild insult, they decided to place him in the chair, saying amongst themselves: “Perhaps the youngster can show us how to meet liabilities and make tracks without money.”
He was quite equal to the occasion. He accepted the position without hesitation. He ransacked the accounts, studied the Board’s position, got a thorough grasp of it, and prepared a long report. His policy was retrenchment and “bluff.” In the first place he cut down the clerk’s salary from five pounds to ten shillings a week, and economised in other directions.
In the next place, he induced the Board to announce that it would dismiss its servants, stop its works, and close its doors for twelve months, unless the County Council, the parent body, came to the rescue. The Council, which had not expected this peremptory demand, paid the required money into the Board’s fund; the public servants were retained; the works in hand were pushed on; the tracks and roads were improved; and the young chairman became absolute dictator in the field of operations controlled by the Board, and held his position securely until the Board ceased to exist.
Time after time, in the House of Representatives, he showed similar powers of bold resolve and prompt action. The most notable illustration was in 1894, when he went to the rescue of the Bank of New Zealand, as related in another chapter. No responsibility was too great for him, and no danger deterred him from taking steps he felt were required to meet an emergency.
