Page:Life·of·Seddon•James·Drummond•1907.pdf/40

 He lived at Staffordtown for some years, and was a member of the local School Committee. Tradition says that he who was to be the champion of “stone-wallers” in New Zealand did not hesitate to block discussion when it had exceeded the limits of his patience. A debate upon the appointment of a teacher to the school having lasted till four o’clock in the morning, Mr. Seddon, realising that the aim of his opponents was to postpone the fatal hour of division, moved that no more amendments should be taken. This was carried on the casting vote of the chairman, and the original motion, supported by Mr. Seddon, was then carried in the same way.

From the School Committee to the Board of Education was an easy step, and in 1874, when he became a member of the latter body, he played a prominent part in the struggle for secular education. The people were divided into secularists and denominationalists, and the conflict was marked by the peculiar bitterness that enters into most disputes based on religious differences. Mr. Seddon and Mr. John McWhirter, two candidates on the national and unsectarian side, conducted an exciting campaign. At Goldsborough they were sometimes obliged to dismount and walk up the hill, sheltered by their horses from a hailstorm of stones. On one occasion a shot was fired; it may have been an accident, but Mr. McWhirter maintained that it had been fired with the intention to injure Mr. Seddon and himself.

The people of Goldsborough still point out the old Hibernian School, a faded building. This school was the centre of a stirring debate, entitled “Sectarian versus Secular Education,” in which Mr. Seddon was opposed by a Roman Catholic priest. At the ballot, the miners, who did not approve of church interference in politics, supported Mr. Seddon’s views, and the Hibernian School was closed.

On Westland being proclaimed a province, with a Parliament and a Superintendent of its own, Mr. Seddon took his seat in the Provincial Council as representative of Arahura. He became chairman of committees, but he could rise no higher before the provincial system of government in New Zealand was abolished, in 1876. Westland becoming a county again, he