The Premier's Departure.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 15, 10 April 1902, Page 17

The Premier's Departure.

Ig Las been announced that Mr. Seddon will take his departure on Saturday by the Drayton Grange, which will also convey the northern battalion of the tenth contingent to South Africa. In selecting this route for his journey Londonwards to take part in the Coronation arrangemeats, the Premier has displayed hia customary adroitness, Few persons desiring a pleatant voyage would choose to make it on a troop ship, even though the best arrangements to secure comfort were made. The Premier in selectthe Drayton Grange sinks not only all considerations of state but of personal ea^e. But on the other hand he will materially add to the effect of his arrival in London, more especially if he goes from the Cape accompanied by a contingent taken from the field, as seema to be contemplated. By this method he will still further accentuate the heartiness with which New Zealand has offered men for the war. He will be recognised not only as the Premier of the small and distant Colony that contributed more men in proportion to its

area and population than any other part of the Empire, but as the only Premier that evinced hia personal interest in tho men to the extent of sharing their voyage and their vicissitudes, and as far as possible visiting them in the field. It may be remarked that the Premier's visit to Africa lends some color to the statement so persistently made some little time ago to the effect that he would be ennobled and offered the Governorship of one of tho African Colonies—probably Orange Free State. It seems natural that if Buoh a step is contemplated, Mr. Seddon would like to see what the country ia like before committing himself. * Without a doubt Mr. Seddon will be the greatest oolonial figure at the coming Coronation. Others may be entitled to nominal precedence by virtue of their place in the chronological order of the foundation of the States which they represent, but Mr. Seddon will most efficiently represent the true colonial spirit. For he has charged himself with a large message. There ifl to be a Conference of Premiers, and Mr. Seddon will introduce and advocate a system of commercial reciprocity in British countries. This is a much larger undertaking than the tariff offered by Canada to all who would reciprocate, for it involves a survey of all the resources of the different parts of the Empire, and the adjustment of an arrangement to suit. It will be, in short, a family council, at which it is natural to expect that more business would be done than by a tedious and perhaps f ruitlesa correspondence. Mr. Seddon also goes home fortified by the full and unanimous approbation of the Colony. Even his bitterest political opponents concede that the representation of New Zealand could not be in any other hands. If it had happened that by one of those chances so frequent in politics he had been ejected from power within the last year, he would still have been the man to represent the Colony on this occasion. This is for the reason that it was he who became identified with the wave of feeling that spread over the Colony. On one or two occasions it Beemed as if his usual tact was in fault, and that he was on the vergt of making a serious mistake, but after events showed that he had accurately gauged public feeling, and he scored again. He has done this so frequently, and ao completely has he been accepted as the exponent of Australasian colonial aspirations that jealousy has already been expressed in Australia, where leading newspapers have complained that the Commonwealth is being dragged at his chariot wheels.