THE SPIRIT OF SEDDON

Hokitika Guardian, 29 June 1928, Page 1

THE SPIRIT OF SEDDON

(Lyttelton Times)

When Mr Sullivan claimed the other evening that the Labour Party had “recaptured the spirit” of Bicliard John Seddon ho must have been talking with his tongue in his cheek.

The secret of Mr Soddon’s success was not, as the Labour speakers think, his sympathy with Labour. It was not even liis wide sympathy, with all men of all classes; it was an innate sense of justice. "When he thought of workers underpaid and labouring long hours under had conditions, his heart went out to them and his determination to give them hotter conditions and better opportunities was unswerving. But it was his sense of social justice that guided his course. Early in his political career he declared that his aim Was to do his best for all the people of the colony, and many years later, when a great deal of his life’s work had been achieved, he repeated the idea, almost in the same words. He had devoted his life, he declared, to promoting the welfare of the whole colony. The very fact -that lie drew his support from all sections of the people is proof "enough that his mine had not been fixed on any one section or any one interest. When he saw the colony fairly on the road to perity, the workers given good c nd tions and fair wages, the farmers lifted out of their long years of struggle and despair, and all classes living in reasonable, comfort and peace, lie tin lied his attention from the social politics to the wider field of Imperial relations. He had a broad outlook, a clear vision and a universal sympathy. How then can the Labour Party, organised for the promotion of sectional interests, with vision . deliberately narrowed and .sympathies hopelessly partial, claim to have “recaptured the Seddon. spirit.” or even to have followed the Seddon inspiration ?