W. SWANSON, M.H.B.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1046, 9 March 1882, Page 4

W. SWANSON, M.H.B.

We quote the following notice of a well-known Auckland member from a Dunedin paper : —William Swanson, the member for Newton, is perhaps the most remarkable man in the House He is a man over 66 years of age, stout build, with very high wide shoulders, round back, dark, hard featured face, with a large, flexible mouth that can be made to express anything, and altogether an uncouth exterior. With educational disadvantages and a disregard to wiiat are called the proprieties of society that would exclude most men from any elective position ; with a care-for-nobody manner ; with no elevated ideas of what is usually called worship, and without the slightest idea of what is meant by refinement, he is not only a power but is even an authority in the House. He was a ship’s carpenter, and the first and most just compliment that a stranger pays to his orator is, “ That man hits the right nail on the head.” When he gets excited, as be easily does, his attitudes and even his face would pass muster at a Maori war-dance ; or his action might be mistaken for the evolutions of an unprofessional boxer, with his long, powerful, and dangerous-looking arms. He hammers the desk before him with a violence that would smash any ordinary piece of furniture. He seldom thinks that any important question has been properly settled without a few words from him, and he is not uufrequently right in that supposition, as he often sees an important point that twenty previous speakers have all missed. He thus speaks often bus never long ; he never wearies his hearers or sends them to sleep. He blurts out what he has to say without introduction or conclusion —without grace or grammar ; and when he gets his Hansard slip to correct, he looks over it with great satisfaction, and says, “ ,Pon my soul, these reporters are fine fellows ; they make a precious sight better speech for me than what I ever make for myself.” But it is not his speeches that give Mr Swanson his place and power in the House. With all his eccentricities, his standard of public duty, I might say of public morality, is higher than that of any other member of the House. He is never out of reach of the division-bell at any time of the day or night—he never asks for anything for himself or his district. Balls, dinners, emoluments, or bonuses are all alike contemptible for him. Any Government can safely offer him a seat in the Ministry, secure that he will have far too much sense to accept it. His last reply to that offer was, “ No ; when a monkey gets up a tree you can see his tail directly. Having sought nothing for himself, and served his constituents faithfully, he carries the same independent spirit to the hustings, and tells the electors that if they want him they must elect him, but that be will ask no man for his vote, nor spend one penny on his election. Thus he dreads dissolution as little as he aspires to promotion, and a Government can find no soft place in the independent member for Newton. Like a great man before him, he calls the mace “ that bauble,” and says that ratlier than pay a Sergeant-at-Arms £2OO a year to carry it about, he would take it in and out himself, dragging it between his legs as a boy drags a stick for a horse.