The Waipukurau Press. Friday, July 20, 1906 MR T. SEDDON, M.H.R.

Waipukurau Press, Volume I, 20 July 1906, Page 2

The Waipukurau Press. Friday, July 20, 1906 MR T. SEDDON, M.H.R.

- ' 7*’. It would be futile to deny and disingenuous to wilfully gloss over or minimise the fact that the cherished memory of the late Premier has not been a potent factor in securing the return of his son as the Parliamentary representative for the constituency that he himself represented for so many years. The peculiarly close and intimate personal and political associations that existed between the late Mr Seddon his constituents, among whom there must be many hundreds of warm personal friends, do not disappear in a week. Mr T. Seddon has been during his platform experiences successful in impressing the people of Westland that he has ability and pluck, and the kind of personal courage that means so much in life, and that the experiment was well worth a trial. Mr Michel had certainly very strong claims on the constituency, and would have worthily, if not ably, represented it in Parliament. But while this is freely admitted, it has to be remembered that on the other side there were also claims, not perhaps directly represented in the person of Air T. Seddon, but yet claims that must have appealed almost, if not more strongly and eloquently, on his behalf than if they were tiie creation of his own labours and his own services to the electorate. And why not? It would be a poor world were it otherwise, and in particular an ugly disillusionment of the belief we have of the fine human characteristics and abounding good nature of the West Coast. And yet to judge from the voting, which ran both candidates up together in several places, it would indeed seem as if the electors were exercising a cold and discriminating and very critical judgment rather than being moved by emotion or sympathy. The Hokitika vote appeared to give particularly clear emphasis to th.s fact. Air Seddon’s youth, his name and the memories and the associations it called up, and the undoubted proofs of ability, latent and entirely undeveloped, ‘in fact, in a raw, crude aud unmanufactured state, but still plainly visible, all iiad their place in the electoral mind and their respective share also in producing the result that may yet furnish an event quite as historic and remarkable as the election of the late Premier for the same constituency so many years ago. Of course we are not assuming that because he is the son of a great father be possesses the qualities that must also give him distinction. This is not at all a fixed or arbitrary rule in the law of heredity. More frequently, indeed, is the contrary tbe case. It certainly would tie easy to prove that by a reference to history. But there are two striking and familiar contemporary instances which sufficiently illustrate the point. They are those of the son of the late Mr Gladstone aud of Mr Chamberlain. In neither is it possible to discern any trait of the genius of their fathers, though both havenad ail the opportunities that higlu place and power could create. Yet they are both, in a comparative sense, commonplace men. But, independent of ail such considerations, and irrespective of the conclusion to which they lead, we have a strong belief that Air Seddon will do credit to the judgment of the electors of Westland, aud prove himself to be the “ worthy son of a distinguished father.”