Elected To The House Of Representatives.
When Mr. Seddon first took an active part in Parliamentary work, the tumult of political strife resounded from every public platform in the colony.
Provincial government had been lately abolished. Party government had made its presence felt for the first time, and party lines were beginning to be clearly marked. Party feeling has never been more bitter.
It was a time of many changes. The country was bewildered at the rapidity with which moving tableaux were presented to its view, and it asked itself where its politicians were leading it. A Conservative Administration, crying aloud for political rest, had been driven from the treasury benches. An aged Premier, Grey by name and grey by years, had come from the seclusion of his beautiful island home at Kawau to offer the people their first Liberal policy. With silvery tongue and sweetly spoken words he asked them to enter upon a new era of legislative activity. He told them that they had a glorious future. He hailed them as the heralds of a greater nation than the world had yet seen. He appealed to fathers on account of their manhood, and to mothers on account of the millions yet unborn, and asked them to realise the splendid destiny that awaited them.
“Make homes for the millions,” he cried. “Give your women happy homes, and provide them with husbands who will help them to rear families in health and comfort. There should be a really temperate and happy population here. You must have good men with a stake in the country. You must have men who will be devoted to their country. You must turn New Zealand from a colony with a pauper population into one of the happiest countries in the world.”
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