“The first time he became chairman he demanded from an astonished Council £250 a year, travelling expenses, and a guinea a day while travelling. This was refused, so far as the guinea a day was concerned. The Kumara hero fought hard for his point, but was defeated. Had it not been for the fact that the Council was suffering from chronic consumption of the purse, he would have once more triumphed. He honestly thought himself worth more to the public than a less energetic and hardworking man.”
During all these stirring times, he was qualifying himself for the greater work before him. He could not have entered a better school of politics. He is not by any means the only New Zealand politician who has started in local government and has gone step by step to Parliament. Some of the best members of Parliament have found the Road Board, the Borough Council, and the County Council a splendid training ground, and all who have served their political apprenticeship on those bodies have been useful members of the larger body, which has benefited by the practical advice they have been able to give at all times on many different questions. Added to his training in public, Mr. Seddon lost no opportunity of increasing his knowledge in private life. He learnt May’s “Parliamentary Practice” almost by heart, and other standard works on the practical part of Parliamentary work were among the few books he cared to read or study.
