“I remember the days when the Victorian miners came and landed there in numbers—men who were prepared to ‘do or dee,’ as the saying is—men who were prepared to come there and develop their country for them, and make it such a country as it had never been before. These men were told by the old identities: ‘Gang awa’ out of this with your clout-houses; we dinna want you here, we dinna want you here.’ If you take the aggregate number of votes that were recorded for candidates who declared themselves Greyites, and an aggregate number of votes polled for those who stood forward in opposition, you will find that we have polled throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand three votes to one.”
A few more sentences brought him to his favourite subject, the West Coast, its trials, sorrows, and grievances. He chose his words carefully and spoke with diffidence, “because it has been said of the West Coast members that they are accustomed to stand up and make long speeches with very little in them.”
He described the separation of Westland from the rich province of Canterbury. To his eyes, Canterbury was a Shylock, which insisted upon having its pound of flesh, so that the new County of Westland was so impoverished that it had no money with which to make its roads and bridges and other public works.
It was obvious that the speaker’s chief object was to defend the Government, but he could not prevent his thoughts from running to the West Coast. He reverted to the no-confidence motion again and again, but only to glance off it and ventilate a miners’ grievance.
Intermingled with short dissertations on triennial Parliaments, financial reforms, manhood suffrage, and the destiny of the young nation, there are frequent references to such prosaic matters as land surveys, sledge channels, tail-races, and water-races.
In view of the radical changes made in the colony’s land system by the Liberal Party when it ascended to power twelve years later, taking him with it, special interest attaches to the remarks he made in that first speech in the House on the land question.
An Irish member had referred to land tenure, and Mr. Seddon said:
