The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13. A NATIONAL LOSS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8133, 13 June 1906, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13. A NATIONAL LOSS.

New Zealand mourns the passing of her greatest citizou; the Empire the foremost of its supporting pillars. To the present eeneration of New Zealanders, Mr Soddonhas been so closely associated with the everyday happenings of their lives, that tho terribly sudden severance of the ties so almost indissolubly binding him to them, almost making him seem necessary to them, shock tho imagination to an extent that the efforts of pen are futile to pourtray. Mr Seddon was so familiar a figure in our public life that we, in lour insularity, and from our divergent political views, may have often failed to grasp with true comprehension the

greatness of the man. He that as it may, there were few New Zealanders who wore not proud of their Premier, if not because of his handling of the reins of the Government in the colony, then because of the attention his utterances and doings attracted throughout the English-speaking world. Mr Seddon has for years been one of the most distinguished men, politicians, and statesmen in the British Empire. That is but a fitting description of the man who has been for over thirteen years Premier of our colony, whose name is a household word alike in the Motherland and in noarly all her outlying possessions, and who stood for all that is

robust Colonial, allied with all that is earnest, practical, and loyal Imperial. His name will go dosvn to posterity and to fame as the exDounder of thai great policy—to use his own words—of " Broader Humanity," to he himself has ascribed his success. He, a true son of tho people, understood them. Nothing of his success was owing to lineage, to prescription, or to special schooling. His whole career was a magnificent embodiment of tho individualistic principle that worth force of character, and integrity alone ought to count. He stood out above his fellows because he possessed all the characteristics which force a born leader of men to the top. From an humble beginning to a station of prominence in the Empire, he rose by the exercise of capacity and determined will, and fos his triumph we honor and revere him, Mr Seddon has paid the penalty of his strenuous life. How hard a worker he was but few outside the precincts of his own immediate circle ever knew. Australian politicians and the Australian press have, during the past mouth, repeatedly marvelled at his wonderful capacity for | work. It becomes more wonderful still when it is learned that the Proraior! had been devoting his most strenuous energies to the affairs of the colony, and to the broader questions of Imperial moment, all the time in the I full knowledge that he was courting death. One marvels at the courage I aud tho temerity of the man. His outstanding characteristic fearless- j

ness—was surely never better exemplified. We are not concerned now with the bickerings of political strife. After thirteen years' trial, during which he had on him the fiercest ql public searchlights, all his weaknesses had been brought out, and ho remained to the end the same strong, patriotic, unpretentious Mr Seddon. There was a great human side to his character that won admiration and affection. Below his successes and his failures, there remained tho true mm, which had been unspoiled by prosperity and unembittered by abuse. Of his great public services it is at this moment unnecessary to speak. They are public property. In closing this brief reference to an event than which none has ever so deeply affected the public mind in New Zealand, if not in Australasia, we desire to extend to the sorrowing widow and family the heartfelt sympathy of all classes. Their grief may be softened by the knowledge that he has gone to his rest with all his honors full upon him, universally mourned by an appreciative and sorrowful people.