Page:Life·of·Seddon•James·Drummond•1907.pdf/62



sons and daughters, and shedding tears as they parted from them when the young people were starting on their voyage to this country. Then the time comes when the sons and daughters send for their fathers and mothers to come out. Do those who spent their sixty or seventy years perhaps in the land of their birth tear themselves from it without feelings of regret? The last Sunday comes—they visit the graveyard where those who have been dear to them lie. They tear themselves away from all the old associations, and they come away to this new country. Do they come willingly? Is it of their own free will that they break asunder all these old ties? No; they are driven away. They are driven from their homes by the bad laws which oppress them. I hope honourable members will bear that in mind when they vote on this occasion, and I trust that in years to come we shall not, through their votes, see the same thing happen here. I fear me that if I were to arise from my grave some 50 or 100 years hence, I should find the people driven from our shores and going to Victoria and New South Wales, where they are legislating year by year against squatocracy.”

Occasionally lighter notes were struck. He took exception to the young Greyites being compared to greyhounds by Mr. A. Saunders, the member for Cheviot. “When I heard the honourable member make that remark,” he said, “I noticed a certain ‘doggedness’ in his style of speech that did not tend to raise him in my estimation. He will find that no matter whether the young members’ colour is grey or anything else, there is a watchfulness about them. He said that the greyhounds were ‘running cunningly.’ I say whatever their running may be I hope it will be straight.”

“The honourable member for Cheviot tried to bounce the young recruits, or ‘greyhounds,’” he said later on, when he had worked himself up to some heat; “but if he attempts to bounce me he will find that my motto is ‘no surrender.’”

In a single sentence he summed up the general policy to which he has clung throughout his public career and private life. “When once I take up a position I will fight it out to the last; I will never cry ‘Peccavi’; I will never ask for quarter.”

The debate was kept going vigorously for days. At last, when all that could possibly be said had been said, and charges and counter-charges had been reiterated, the House went to a division.

Almost every member was present and in his seat. No sooner had the doors been locked than the members moved towards the lobbies.