WELLINGTON NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 161, 24 July 1897, Page 3

WELLINGTON NOTES.

[from our own correspondent ]. Wki.lincton, July 10. AbTONI-HING THE BRITISHERS. Thk 'Frisco mai! brought English papers willi details of Dr. Seddon's famous say-ing-i and doings in England, and he certainly has a grievance against the cablegrammer tor not having kept us better posted up in the triumphal progress he made during his first fortnight on English soil. Why, for instance, was not the fact made known that when Mr Seddon, his wife and daughters arrived at Euston Station Colonel Baillie-Hamilton and several other swells were in waiting with two Royal carriages, each drawn by a pair of horses, the coachmen and footmen wearing the Royal scarlot liveries took them to the Hotel Cecil, where a handsome suite of rooms were prepared for them. And the touching episode of our sentimental Premier taking Sir George Grey in his arms an 1 carrying him bodily down the staircase so as to ensure his distinguished but feeble visitor a more easy mode of transit to his carriage is fully set forth by the London penuy-a liner as a living proof not only of great physical strength, but a tenderness and respect for age which brought tears of sympathy to the eyes of the scarlet-liveiied footmen in attendance. To the inevitable interview* r he was singulat ly modest—for Mr Se 'don. For instance, he expressed satisfaction at the signs of progress he saw at 'Frisco and Chicago, and he met two schoolfellows at Silt Lake City who were now Mormom bishops. "Perhaps," he confided to the repoiter, " if 1 had gone there I, too, might have become a bishop. Who can tell ? " Y\ ho, indeed ! wc may well echo If such a fate had befallen him, whi knows but he might have conferred female suffrage on the multiplicity of wives a Mormon bishop had, until the brutal Government of the United States stepped in and limited bishops to one spouse. On this subject be said : " Some years ago I was against women's suffrage, but in 1893 the task of carrying this Bill through fell on my shoulders, and although, as I have said, I was not over convinced of its wisdom, I was in honour bound to see that it was passed." This is an entirely new version of Mr Seddon's attitude in 1593 as we in the colony have hitherto understood it. How he and the brewing fraternity lobbied and exerted themselves in that session to kill the Bill, is it not written in the chrouicles of contemporary history ? It is also gratifying to know that he expressed approval of the falls of Niagara and President McKinley. In a dark mysterious way he said he was particularly glad that no session of Parliament was beiDg held in his absence from the colony he ruled, because he said " I am in hope that certain things may happen b\ fore my return to the colony, which would require to be mentioned in the Governor's speech." What can this portend ? Annexation of Samoa ? The presentation of two battleships to the Empire ?or the raising of a five, iustead of a paltry one million loan ? He got back into his old form at a dinner of welcome given him, at which 120 notabilities attended. He recited all the old platitudes we all know 60 well, and managed to do it in an hour and a half. But as no after dinner speeches in London ever exceed twenty minutes—even Mr Chamberlain's famous and histoiic speech at the Colonial Institute only occupied that time—it is not surprising that when the customary time bad passed that the reporters dropped their pencils and shut up their note books, and that Lord Glasgow, our late Governor, who was to propose the toast following Mr Seddon's, thanks had to leave Lefore his turn arrived. Mr Seddon has, perhaps, by this time realised that Londoners don't have spechl State trains at their service as New Z. aland politician have. As for the matter of his speech then, and on other occasions there appears to have been in some of his statements fa ly ten ounces to the ton of reliable facts. They would have passed current here at a heavy discount, but among the unsophisticated Londoners they seem to have gone off at par, THE AWARUA SEAT. The Honourable Joseph O. Ward's warbling of bis favourite ballad, " There's Bound to be a Row," had a prophetic ring about it, and his own evidence and that of the auditor of the books of his association are very impressive. Anywhere but in Awarua the disclosures would send all concerned to Coventry, but there such deeds are judged as being self-denying, chivalrous, even sublime. He has issued an address to the electors, and inter alia says : "I have been surrounded by business difliculties ! I may be pardoned for saying, without being accused of egotism, that in many ways 1 have assisted to make the name of Southland and its products more widely known than formerly ! ! If it be your wish that I should again contest the seat, my services are at your disposal ! ! !" Of course, when Sir Maurice O'RorUe, Speaker of the House, sanctifies St. Joseph with his regret and blc.sing, why should not the sympathising people of Southland again show their confidence in the brilliaut financier, of whom his own auditor swore in the box yesterday that "In 1895 the balance sheet showed only £IO,OOO of liabilities, whereas in reality there should have been £84,000, and whoever was responsible had deliberately and wilfully misled the shareholders and concealed the state of affairs." Now it does ssem to the ordinary mind that a man who can offer himself as a candidate for Parliament with such tcstin ony given by one of his own business associates standing against him, must be possessed of brassmounted cheek of a very high order, the more so as the opinion of the best iegal talent of the colony is that if the electors who prefer this kind of representatives arc in a majority and return him that he cannot sit. Public morality is elastic, but there are limits beyond which an indiarubber conscience will not stretch, and although among ourselves we may ren-iet that "a class of men have become promineut in pubhe life whose conduct would not be tolerated in the every day affairs of commerce, it is very sad to read the comments in other colonics on what is being done in New Zealand. The whole colony has to bear the odium of the cynical criticisms in our midst, because for the time being the conntry is being run by politicians guided by the demands of the mobooracy.