Jul 30, 2010
I wouldn't want to make too much of this, but Richard John Seddon has impinged on my life more than chance should have allowed. I've already told you Uncle Murray's story about King Dick's trip down the West coast with Lord Onslow, but perhaps I haven't mentioned his other story about Seddon's typically corrupt use of power to help some yobbo supporter, by sending him with a note to a senior public servant telling him to find the bloke a job as a clerk. The CEO wrote back saying "The man you have sent me to employ as a clerk can neither read nor write!" Dick's reply, written across the bottom of the CEO's letter said "Well learn him!"
Uncle Murray seems to have been much impressed by Seddon, claiming that the Liberal Party could never have been defeated while Seddon was alive. He was, after all a consistent champion of the poor, and he did introduce the old age pension as well as a government insurance office, state coal mines and an integrated railway system.
But my own connection with Seddon was much closer. When I first left home in 1946 I lived in Seddon's house for two years, played croquet on his lawn, ate in his dining room and played cards in his lounge. Perhaps I should add that he had died forty years previously, and his prime ministerial residence had been taken over as a hostel for a collection of junior recruits to the Post and Telegraph Department. Nevertheless, some of his vibes must have lingered there, for it was there that I first found myself pushed forward as a spokesperson for the confused and oppressed. Most of my associates there were were only marginally literate, and as they were forever trying to get transferred to somewhere nearer home, they believed their chances would be improved if I wrote the letter of request for them. I don't know if it worked but no more did they. My letters always ended "Hoping this application will receive your favourable consideration, I remain" etc. I was very formal in those days.
There was always a certain amount of grumbling and dissatisfaction among the inmates at the hostel, and when the old Matron of the place called in someone from Head Office to sort us out, I got appointed spokesperson to put the case for our side. I just enunciated some of our grievances and next day the Matron resigned. Dick would have been proud of me.
Subsequently, at Teachers' College and University, I got put on various student committees, and when we went to Samoa, I got to be secretary of the local branch of the Public Service Association, and later, at Massey, presided over the local branch of the Association of University Teachers. And so it goes on. I don't recall making the sort of effort Dick would have made with his eternal lust for power, but obviously I didn't resist strongly enough, or perhaps Dick had put a spell on me. I suppose the culmination of it all was when I got elected on to the Mount Albert City Council, for its final term of office.
Anyway I was delighted when nephew Andy found out that my great grandfather, Frederik Christian Dale had been on the Westland County Council and the Education Board in the early 1880's when Dick Seddon was chairman of both, and that old Fred had given him the hurry-up from time to time. The editor of the West Coast Times which reported the meetings doesn't seem to have been altogether taken in by Seddon's bluster, and neither was Fred.
There are at least two reasons for getting into politics : one is to support a cause and get something done, and the other is a lust for power. Helen Clark would be one of the first kind, and Rob Muldoon would be one of the others. Great grandfather Frederik seems to have belonged to the first sort. The newspapers of the day seem to suggest that Richard John Seddon was one of the second sort. They were on the Westland County Council together in 1881 and the records show that under Seddon's chairmanship the meetings were pretty lively. Perhaps he was inclined to thump the table a bit to get attention, because one of his councillors , on one occasion handed him a rock hammer head with a piece of axe handle attached and suggested he use that. He said he didn't need it, as nature had provided him with weapons, and displayed according to Frederik, "a remarkably big and clumsy fist." Seddon was a big man and had done a bit of boxing in his time, and he was inclined to try to intimidate people. However at the next meeting of the council, when Frederik said he "was not even afraid of Seddon's fists", Dick wrote a wheedling letter to the West Coast Times editor, claiming that however far Fred "may have forgot himself , or ignored the respect due to the Council and myself, I never, in the course of my remarks, said anything disrespectful, threatening, or personal." This, of course, was true of the meeting in question, but not of the previous one.
At some stage, Seddon had got hold of a couple of books on law, and was inclined to believe he had a better knowledge of the art of chairmanship than had any of his councillors. On the strength of this he was inclined to rule motions "out of order" whenever he disagreed with the intention of them. On one such occasion, when a majority of Council prevented anything being done until he reversed his ruling, one councillor complimented him on being "a half lawyer and a whole donkey". This gave rise to another remark of Frederik's when Seddon threatened to carry him out of the meeting, "that he had no objection to riding on a donkey provided he had a good pair of spurs on."
In later years, Seddon seems to have learned to moderate his behaviour somewhat, but like Rob Muldoon, his overbearing manner and unlimited self assurance always won the hearts of the masses, and he was never in danger of losing an election.
I can't say that the meetings of the Mount Albert Council were ever as much fun as the West Coast ones.