TRIBUTE TO MR SEDDON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1745, 7 August 1917, Page 4

TRIBUTE TO MR SEDDON.

Writing in the London Morning Lost, Mr L. Davidson says that in 1900 he made a tour oii the British Empire on behalf of the Standard and Morning' Post, and that the editor of (he Standard had requested him to do what he could to induce the Premiers and leaders of opinion in the Dominions to adopt preference with each other in anticipation of the Mother Country making a move. When he arrived at Auckland lie called on Mr Seddon, and submitted the proposal, and the Premier said he would like a few days to think it over. “Subsequently he wired me to meet him in Rolorua, where he told me he had considered the matter, and was determined to do his best to bring about inter-State preference independent of the Mother Country. That night, at a banquet, lie declared his new policy. Having put his shoulder to the wheel, Mr Seddon shortly thereafter proceeded to Australia to arrange the initiation of this ‘preferential tariff between the colonies/ and the day before he left Australia he asked me to lunch with him, and he explained the great difficulty in arranging a tariff between countries which, to a. large extend grew the same jiroduets, but he was gratified with his success under the circumstances. This tariff was subsequently extended to South Africa and to Canada, and I think it may fairly be said that the late Mr Seddon was the father of Imperial preference within the British Empire, and the suggestion on which This Imperial preference movement was begun was made and originated in the way I have indicated. Mr Seddon’s death occurred the day he left Australia, and this preferential tariff work was the last service ho rendered the Empire.”