He now stepped out into the open and declared that he was an adviser of the Empire and an imperialist.
This happened in 1897, when he accepted Mr. Chamberlain’s invitation to attend the ceremonies connected with Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and to be the guest of the Imperial Government. He went as the official bearer of a message from New Zealand to Queen Victoria; he came back as the bearer of an unofficial message from the people of the Old Country to the people of New Zealand. It is a message that was engraven on his mind. He tried to impress it upon the New Zealand public, and he delivered it over and over again.
Business was to be combined with pleasure in the programme the Home Government prepared for the Colonial Premiers, but the business part of the programme was not large. It consisted of the Premiers’ Conference, where Mr. Seddon met the representatives of Canada, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Cape Colony, South Australia, Newfoundland, Tasmania, Western Australia, and Natal. The principal question discussed was the political and commercial relations between the colonies and the United Kingdom. Mr. Chamberlain felt that it was desirable to tighten the ties which bound the colonies to the Mother Country. Federation was in the air, and the Secretary for the Colonies believed that practical application could be given to the principle.
The Premiers came to the conclusion that the political relations which then existed were generally satisfactory under the existing condition of things. This decision, however, did not satisfy Mr. Seddon. It was his belief that the time had come already when an effort should be made to render more formal the ties between the colonies and the United Kingdom. The majority of the Premiers were not prepared to adopt that position, but there was a strong feeling amongst some of them that with the rapid growth of population in the colonies the relations that then existed could not continue indefinitely, and that some means would have to be devised for giving the colonies a voice in the control and direction of those questions of imperial interest in which they were concerned equally with the Mother Country. It was recognised at the same time that such a share
