Page:Old Westland (1939).pdf/248

222 that among his earliest friends were John R. Hudson and Walter Ramsay, two of the first arrivals at Hokitika. The diggings called, and Mr. Seddon followed the early days of the Stafford and Waimea fields. It was near the latter (now called Goldsborough) that he set up a storekeeping business at the Big Dam. It was the centre of a minor rush, and flourished for a few years, but has now vanished—for only the memory of the locality remains. Three years after the first arrival of Mr. Seddon, he returned to Melbourne, and brought back the lady of his choice, to whom he had been engaged. Mrs. Seddon came with her husband in 1869, and played a notable part in the life of the statesman to be. The young couple became established at Big Dam, where a country business was conducted. Life on the goldfields in those days called for resource in the individual—more so for the man in business, who with a nomadic population had to watch carefully the movements of customers who ran accounts. Mr. Seddon was able to play his part, and had many a battle with doubtful debtors, but in only one case was he worsted in actual contest. In later years when visiting England as Premier of New Zealand, one of the reception party at the railway station was his vanquisher in open combat, yet hearty was the reunion between the two former contestants. On another occasion, Mr. Seddon had