slept for nearly two hours, and rose refreshed. His mind was still on his work, and he said that on the following day he would prepare some speeches he intended to deliver at the opening of Parliament. He also referred with satisfaction to the fact that he had practically arranged the reciprocal treaty between New Zealand and Australia.
At 6.20 p.m., when the steamer had passed the Heads, he was sitting in his cabin with Mrs. Seddon and Mr. J. F. Andrews, his private secretary. Suddenly placing his head on his wife’s shoulder, he said, “Oh, mother,” and expired immediately.
His death was dramatic. The plaudits of the Australian nation were ringing in his ears, and he was returning to his own country to put into practice schemes he had devised to help his people. Throughout his Australian visit he had thrown off the ill-health that had beset him; he had spurned the ease to which he was entitled, and, apparently, was in splendid health. In his last moments, he suffered no pain, and he passed away in the happy possession of the love of his own country and the esteem of the Empire to which he belonged. He had had a hard life of toil, but he died a happy death. It was such a death as he, or any other man, might have wished for. He was in the enjoyment of great influence, which he was exercising for good; and the public, in whose gratitude he had little faith when he entered politics twenty-seven years previously, was showering upon him honour after honour and kindness after kindness. The time was fast approaching when he would have to relinquish the work he loved. He had already realised that; and he had made up his mind to retire from the Premiership when he returned to the colony after attending the Premiers’ Conference in London in April, 1907. But Death anticipated him, and he passed away at the height of his career.
The steamer was taken back to Sydney, and when the sad news was sent abroad it created a profound sensation in the whole of Australia. The Australians were shocked to learn that the great man who had come to visit them, and who had said so much to them about the destiny of the Empire and the aims of humanitarian reformers, had suddenly passed away. His last
