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Richard John Seddon (22 June 1845 – 10 June 1906) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 15th premier (prime minister) of New Zealand from 1893 until his death. In office for thirteen years, he is to date New Zealand's longest-serving head of government.
Seddon was born in Eccleston, Lancashire, England. He arrived in New Zealand in 1866 and settled on the West Coast of the South Island, where he lived for the rest of his life. His prominence in local politics gained him a seat in the House of Representatives in 1879 for Hokitika. Seddon became a key member of the Liberal Party under the leadership of John Ballance. When the Liberal Government came to power in 1891 Seddon was appointed to several portfolios, including Minister of Public Works. Seddon succeeded to the leadership of the Liberal Party following Ballance's death in 1893, inheriting a bill for women's suffrage, which was passed the same year despite Seddon's opposition to it. Seddon's government achieved many social and economic changes, such as the introduction of old age pensions. His personal popularity, charisma and strength overcame dissent from within his cabinet. This has been described as firmly establishing "Seddonism", a colloquial term for Seddon's strand of nationalist conservatism, as New Zealand's dominant political ideology.
Seddon's Liberal government also purchased vast amounts of land from Māori, aided by his allies Alfred Cadman and James Carroll as the Ministers of Native Affairs. He spent the 1899 general election trying to relieve New Zealand's parliament of the independent politicians who had so greatly dominated the country's organised national politics since its provenance, in which he triumphed greatly. An imperialist in foreign policy, his attempt to incorporate Fiji into New Zealand failed, but he successfully annexed the Cook Islands in 1901. Seddon's government supported Britain with troops in the Second Boer War (1899–1902) and supported preferential trade between British colonies.
Seddon was regarded as deeply regionalist and Cronyism, being biased towards his adopted region of the West Coast. He inspired serious and long-lasting loyalty among his cabinet members. Leading the Liberal Party until his death, the party afterwards struggled to recover. Despite being derisively known as " King Dick" for his autocratic style, and criticised for his actions on Māori land deprivation and his views on Racism (especially towards Chinese), he has nonetheless been named as one of the most influential politicians in New Zealand history.
Despite this background, Seddon did not perform well at school, and was described as unruly. Despite his parents' attempt to give him a classics education, Seddon developed an interest in engineering, but was removed from school at age 12. After working on his grandfather Richard's farm at Barrow Nook Hall for two years, Seddon was an apprentice at Robert Daglish Foundry in Sutton. He later worked at Vauxhall foundry in Liverpool, where he attained a Board of Trade Certificate as a mechanical engineer. During his time in Lancashire, he was heavily influenced by social liberalism, and many of its ideas would form part of his political philosophy as a politician.
On 15 June 1862, at the age of 16, Seddon decided to emigrate to Australia, working his passage to Melbourne on the SS Great Britain. He later provided his reasoning: "A restlessness to get away to see new, broad lands seized me: My work was irksome. I felt cramped." He entered the railway workshops at Williamstown, and also worked in the goldfields at Bendigo; he did not meet with any great success. In either 1865 or 1866, he became engaged to Louisa Jane Spotswood, but her family would not permit marriage until Seddon was financially secure.
Seddon moved to New Zealand's West Coast in 1866. Initially, he worked the goldfields in Waimea. He is believed to have prospered here, and he returned briefly to Melbourne to marry Louisa. He established a store, and then expanded his business to include the sale of alcohol, becoming a Public house. He was followed to the West Coast by his older sister Phoebe, younger brothers Edward and Jim and younger sister Mary. Phoebe married William Cunliffe on 9 May 1863 at Holy Trinity Church Eccleston. Their son Bill was Labour MP David Cunliffe's grandfather, making Richard Seddon David Cunliffe's great-great-uncle.
In 1874 Seddon stood for the newly created Westland Provincial Council and was elected for Arahura. He established himself as a broadly effective, if rather bellicose, advocate for miners' interests. He also took an interest in education during this time. He lost this position with the abolition of the provinces in 1876, and was elected instead to the newly reconstituted county council. In 1876 he stood for Parliament in the two-member Hokitika electorate and placed fourth out of five candidates.
Kumara became a prominent goldmining town. Seddon was elected its first Mayor in 1877. He had staked a claim in Kumara the previous year, and had shortly afterwards moved his business there. Despite occasional financial troubles (he filed for bankruptcy in 1878), his political career prospered.
In Parliament, Seddon aligned himself with George Grey, a former Governor turned Premier. Seddon later claimed to be particularly close to Grey, although some historians believe that this was an invention for political purposes. Initially, Seddon was derided by many members of Parliament, who mocked his "provincial" accent (which tended to drop the letter "h") and his lack of formal education. He nevertheless proved quite effective in Parliament, being particularly good at "stonewalling" certain legislation. His political focus was on issues of concern to his West Coast constituents. He specialised on mining issues, became a recognised authority on the topic, and chaired the goldfields committee in 1887 and 1888.
He aggressively proclaimed a populist anti-elitist philosophy in many speeches and toast. "It is the rich and the poor; it is the wealthy people and the landowners against the middle classes and the labouring classes," he explained.
Seddon was sworn into his first ministerial positions when the Liberals came to power in January 1891. He became minister of public works, mines, defence, and marine. He promoted co-operative contract system for road-making and other public works projects.
Unlike Ballance who believed in classical liberalism, Seddon did not have any great commitment to any ideology. Rather, he saw the Liberals as champions of "the common man" against large commercial interests and major landowners. His strong advocacy for what he saw as the interests of ordinary New Zealanders won him considerable popularity. Attacks by the opposition, which generally focused on his lack of education and sophistication (one opponent said that he was only "partially civilised") reinforced his growing reputation as an enemy of elitism.
Seddon quickly became popular across the country. Some of his colleagues, however, were not as happy, accusing him of putting populism ahead of principle, and of being an anti-intellectual. John Ballance, now Premier, had a deep commitment to liberal causes such as women's suffrage and Māori rights, which Seddon was not always as enthusiastic about. Nevertheless, many people in the Liberal Party believed that Seddon's popularity was a huge asset for the party, and Seddon developed a substantial following.
Despite Seddon's promise, however, there was no vote on the party leadership and therefore the premiership. By convincing his party colleagues that a leadership contest would split the party in two, or at least leave deep divisions, Seddon managed to secure a permanent hold on the leadership. Stout continued to be one of his strongest critics and led the campaign for women's suffrage despite Seddon's opposition. Eventually Stout left the Liberal Party in 1896 and remained in the house as an independent until 1898. In 1899, however, Seddon recommended Stout to the Governor as the next Chief Justice of New Zealand.
This resulted in considerable debate within the Liberal Party. John Hall, a former conservative premier, moved a Bill to enact women's suffrage. Seddon's opponents within the party, led by Stout (also an advocate of temperance), managed to gather enough support for the Bill to be passed despite Seddon's opposition. When Seddon realised that the passage of the bill was inevitable, he changed his position, claiming to accept the people's will. In actuality, however, he took strong measures to ensure that the Legislative Council would vote down the Bill, as it had done previously. Seddon's tactics in lobbying the council were seen by many as underhand, and two Councillors, despite opposing suffrage, voted in favour of the bill in protest. The Bill was granted Royal Assent in September.
Nonetheless, at the 1893 general election in November, Seddon's Liberal Party managed to increase its majority.
Although Chinese immigrants were invited to New Zealand by the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, prejudice against them quickly led to calls for restrictions on immigration. Following the example of anti-Chinese poll taxes enacted by California in 1852 and by Australian states in the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s, John Hall's government passed the Chinese Immigration Act 1881. This imposed a £10 tax per Chinese person entering New Zealand, and permitted only one Chinese immigrant for every 10 tons of cargo. Richard Seddon's government increased the tax to £100 per head in 1896 ($20,990 in modern New Zealand dollars), and tightened the other restriction to only one Chinese immigrant for every 200 tons of cargo.
Seddon compared Chinese people to monkeys, and so used the Yellow Peril conspiracy theory to promote Racialism politics in New Zealand. In 1879, in his first political speech, Seddon said that New Zealand did not wish her shores "deluged with Asiatic Tartars. I would sooner address white men than these Chinese. You can't talk to them, you can't reason with them. All you can get from them is 'No savvy'."Burdon, Randal Mathews. King Dick: A Biography of Richard John Seddon, Whitcombe & Tombs, 1955, p.43.
Seddon accumulated a large number of portfolios for himself, including that of Minister of Finance (from which he displaced Joseph Ward), Minister of Labour (from which he displaced William Pember Reeves), Minister of Education, Minister of Defence, Minister of Native Affairs, and Minister of Immigration.
Seddon was also accused of cronyism – his friends and allies, particularly those from the West Coast, were given various political positions, while his enemies within the Liberal Party were frequently denied important office. Many of Seddon's appointees were not qualified for the positions that they received – Seddon valued loyalty above ability. One account, possibly apocryphal, claims that he installed an ally as a senior civil servant despite the man being illiterate. He was also accused of nepotism – in 1905, it was claimed that one of his sons had received an unauthorised payment, but this claim was proved false.
Sir Carl Berendsen recalled seeing Seddon in 1906 as a Department of Education junior innocently bearing what was an unwelcome document. A replacement was needed for a small native school. The inspectors had picked out three outstanding candidates, but Seddon picked out the last on the lengthy list; he had no academic qualifications and had just been released from gaol for embezzlement. When the Premier appointed the gentlemen from gaol, Departmental officials returned the papers and called attention to his criminal record. Berendsen cowered in the corner while with a snarl Seddon grasped his pen and wrote once more in very large letters, "Appoint Mr X". Berendsen noted though that when an Editor was required for the new School Journal, Departmental officials had agreed on the best man, but the Massey Government (which had replaced the Liberal Government) was "quite shameless in devotion to the principle of the loaves and fishes... and the Minister of the day appointed the third choice".
As Minister of Native Affairs, Seddon took a generally "sympathetic" but "paternalism" approach. As Minister of Immigration, he was well known for his hostility to Chinese immigration – the so-called "Yellow Peril" was an important part of his populist rhetoric, and he compared Chinese people to monkeys. In his first political speech in 1879 he had declared New Zealand did not wish her shores to be "deluged with Asiatic Tartars. I would sooner address white men than these Chinese. You can't talk to them, you can't reason with them. All you can get from them is 'No savvy'."
Successive governments had also shown a lack of firmness in dealing with Māori, he said: "The colony, instead of importing with which to fight Maori, should wage war with locomotives"... pushing through roads and railways and compulsorily purchasing "the land on both sides".
Seddon became a Freemason in 1868 when he was initiated into Pacific Lodge No 1229 (under the United Grand Lodge of England) in Hokitika. The lodge is still extant, but has since relocated to Christchurch. In 1898, while premier, he was elected Grand Master of New Zealand, and served in that role for two years.
He twice refused a knighthood, wanting to be seen as a .
In June 1906, while returning from a trip to Australia on the ship Oswestry Grange, he was sitting with his wife in his cabin waiting to be called to dinner when he suddenly placed his head on his wife's shoulder, and said, "Oh, mother," before expiring of a massive heart attack at 6.20 pm on 10 June. Immediately following his death the ship, which was from Sydney Heads, turned back to port, its flag at half-mast. He died 12 days before his 61st birthday. On the eve of his departure, he had sent a number of telegrams, among whom was one to the premier of Victoria, Thomas Bent, which contained the words, “Just leaving for God's own country”.
News of his death provoked numerous public gestures of grief, which included black-bordered displays in shop windows and several public monuments, including a memorial lamp post outside the St Helens Hospital in Pitt Street Auckland.
Seddon’s funeral was held on 21 June 1906 and he was buried in Wellington's Bolton Street Cemetery, now Bolton Street Memorial Park.
Joseph Ward was away in London at the time of Seddon's death. He succeeded Seddon as Prime Minister nearly two months later, on 6 August 1906.
The couple had the following eleven children with nine surviving to adulthood.
Seddon's son Thomas replaced him as MP for Westland in the by-election following his death. When Thomas met former US President Theodore Roosevelt in 1918, he expressed admiration for his late father, particularly the labour legislation his government passed.
A town in New Zealand and a suburb of Melbourne, Australia are named after him. Wellington Zoo was originally created when a young lion was presented to Prime Minister Richard Seddon by the Bostock and Wombwell Circus. Seddon created the Zoo from this single specimen and the lion was later named King Dick in the Prime Minister's honour. The stuffed body of King Dick (the lion) is displayed on the ground floor of the Museum of Wellington City & Sea. St Mary's Church in Addington, Christchurch also has a memorial bell tower to Richard Seddon.
The Duke of Argyll unveiled a memorial to Seddon in St Paul's Cathedral, London, in 1910. It shows a portrait of Seddon with the inscription "
To the memory of Richard John Seddon prime minister of New Zealand 1893–1906 imperialist statesman reformer born June 22nd 1845 at St Helens Lancashire buried at Observatory Hill Wellington New Zealand"
The memorial was designed by government architect John Campbell and constructed by Edwards and Son of Wellington with the above ground portion consisting of reinforced concrete faced with Coromandel granite. It cost £2,746. Constructed between 1908 and 1910 the memorial is topped by a bronze female figure approximately in height and weighing symbolising the “Zealandia”, the country mourning its dead. Costing approximately £500, the figure was designed at the London studio of sculptor Henry Poole and cast by Alexander Parlanti. The concrete crypt underneath contains the body of Seddon, his wife Louisa, their daughter Mary Stuart Hay and memorial to their son Captain Richard Spotswood Seddon, who was killed in 1918 while serving in France.
The family remains were temporally removed when between 2021 and December 2022 when the memorial was restored and seismically strengthened by the installation of a structural steel frame in the crypt and central void, combined with the installation of 17 post-tension tie rods.
In October 1966 anti-Vietnam war protestors painted “No New Zealand Troops in Vietnam” across the plinth. In November 1988 a group protesting against the signing of the Antarctic convention and the risk they believed it posed to wildlife enclosed the statue in a giant penguin suit. In February 2022, an anti-mandate and anti-lockdown Covid-19 protestor tagged it with a Nazi Swastika and the words “Freedom” and “Truth”.
Since 11 November 1981 the statue has had a Historic Places category 1 listing.
Another statue of Seddon has a prominent position in the West Coast town of Hokitika.
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Honours
Seddon attended Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and received her Jubilee Medal and an appointment in the Privy Council. In 1902 he attended the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra and received his Coronation Medal. During the same visit, he received the Freedom of the Borough of his home-town St Helens during a visit there in July 1902, and the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh and an honorary degree LL.D. from the University of Edinburgh during a visit to the city later the same month. He was also presented with the Honorary Freedom of the Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers on 8 August 1902.
Death
Seddon remained Prime Minister for 13 years, but gradually, calls for him to retire became more frequent. Various attempts to replace him with Joseph Ward met with failure.
Personal life
Seddon married Louisa Seddon on 13 January 1869 in Trinity Church, Williamstown, Victoria, Australia. Lousia was born on 28 May 1851 in Williamstown, Victoria, Australia to Anna Victoria (nee Normandale) and John Stuart Spotswood. After a long illness Louisa died at her home, "Eccleston,” in Wellington on 9 July 1931. Flags were flown at half-mast, on various Government buildings on the day of her funeral.
Legacy
He is considered by academics and historians to be one of New Zealand's greatest and most revered prime ministers. Seddon centralised government decision-making around himself—at his peak he exercised "almost one-man, one-party rule"—and, in doing so, he established the premiership as the de facto most important political office in New Zealand.
Seddon memorial
Following Seddon's death plans were put in place to erect a suitable memorial which would also incorporate a Seddon family mausoleum. It was quickly agreed that the existing Colonial Time Service Observatory on top of Observatory Hill (today part of Bolton Street Memorial Park) should be torn down to make way for it. A new observatory was later constructed on the site of the former Garden coast defence battery at the top of the Botanic Gardens.
Statues of Seddon
A high bronze statue on a pedestal of Aberdeen granite to Seddon was erected facing Molesworth Street in front of the main entrance to Parliament Buildings. It was commissioned by then-Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward from Sir Thomas Brock. The statue has him wearing a frock coat which was based on the one that he had worn while speaking at Papawai near Greytown. The coat had been brought to Brock in 1905 by Louisa Seddon and her daughter Mary.
The statue was paid for by jointly by the government and the public, with its completion delayed by the landscaping of the grounds and the construction of Seddon’s memorial. At a public event attended by 1,500 people on 26 June 1915 the statue was unveiled by the Governor-General, Lord Liverpool. Among those attending were members of Seddon’s family, the prime minister William Massey, Sir Joseph Ward and Sir John Luke, mayor of Wellington.
Notes and references
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Categories: 1845 Births, 1906 Deaths, People From Eccleston, Lancashire, English Emigrants To New Zealand, Mayors Of Places In The West Coast Region, New Zealand Gold Prospectors, Ministers Of Finance Of New Zealand, New Zealand Liberal Party Mps, Leaders Of Political Parties In New Zealand, People From St Helens, Merseyside, 20th-century Prime Ministers Of New Zealand, 19th-century Prime Ministers Of New Zealand, People From The West Coast Region, Ministers Of Defence Of New Zealand, Burials At Bolton Street Cemetery, Ministers Of Education Of New Zealand, Mining Ministers Of New Zealand, Public Works Ministers Of New Zealand, Members Of The New Zealand House Of Representatives, New Zealand Members Of The Privy Council Of The United Kingdom, New Zealand Mps For South Island Electorates, New Zealand Freemasons, People Of The West Coast Gold Rush, People Who Died At Sea, Richard
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