Prime Minister of New Zealand. His Majesty is assured that the loyal and distinguished services which Mr. Seddon has rendered during his long tenure of office will secure for his name a permanent place among the statesmen who have most zealously aided in fostering the sentiment of kinship on which the unity of the Empire depends.”
“His Majesty’s Government have received with the greatest regret the news of the death of the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Please convey to Mrs. Seddon expressions of my deepest sympathy, and to the people of New Zealand our sense of the loss which they and we have all sustained by the removal of a statesman so distinguished in the history of the colony and the Empire.”
The Queen’s message to Mrs. Seddon was as follows:—
“Accept my deepest sympathy in your overwhelming sorrow, which the whole of England shares.”
The Prince of Wales sent the following message to Mrs. Seddon:—
“The Princess of Wales and I are deeply grieved at your irreparable loss. We shall never forget your dear husband’s kindness to us in New Zealand.”
Sir Joseph Ward, who was in London, sent the following message to the Mayor of Hokitika:—
“The hearts of the people of New Zealand are saddened by the removal of the representative of Westland from the control of the colony’s public affairs. The Empire, whose interests were ever uppermost in his mind, will feel the loss of Mr. Seddon’s powerful advocacy for its welfare. Among those who will miss his great public figure most will be his steadfast friends of Westland. The miners have lost a true friend and champion, and all classes will join me in tendering his wife and family their deepest possible sympathy.”
The High Commissioner in London received the following letter from Mr. J. Chamberlain:—
“Dear Mr. Reeves,—I have seen, with the deepest regret, the news in the paper this morning of the sudden death of my friend the late Prime Minister of New Zealand. I have ventured to cable a short message to Mrs. Seddon, but desire also, through you, as the official representative of New Zealand in this country, to express my keen sense of the loss the colony has sustained by the death of its able and patriotic leader. On the various occasions on which I had the pleasure of meeting him, I formed the highest opinion of his ability, courage, and devotion to the interests of New Zealand, while I had full opportunity of recognising his far-seeing appreciation of the privileges and responsibilities of the Empire in which he so earnestly desired that New Zealand should take her appropriate place. At the time of the South African war, he was the first to appeal to his fellow-colonists to give a practical proof of their sympathy with the Mother
