Our first premiers had to find their own digs. That changed in 1865, when the government bought the premier a simple 22-year-old wooden cottage in Thorndon’s Tinakori Road.
Premier Richard Seddon poses in the middle of a group including many of
the residents of Seddonville when he came to open the new Seddonville
State Mine in late 1903.
After John
Rochfort discovered fragments of bituminous coal in a river north of Westport in 1859, the
search was on for accessible coal seams that could be mined.
The West Coast coalmining settlement of Seddonville, 50 kms north of
Westport, was named in honour of the Liberal Premier Richard
Seddon. It was also the site of an early experiment in state
socialism – New Zealand's first state coal mine opened there in 1903.
Premier R.J. Seddon asked Parliament to approve an offer to the British government of a contingent of mounted rifles. Amid emotional scenes, the proposition was overwhelmingly endorsed - only five members voted against it.
Richard Seddon’s nickname, ‘King Dick’, says it all. Our longest-serving and most famous leader not only led the government, he was it, many argued. For 13 years he completely dominated politics.
A world first, the Act gave a small means-tested pension to destitute older people who were 'of good moral character'; Chinese were specifically excluded. It was one of the major achievements of Richard Seddon's Liberal government.
The brainchild of Liberal Minister of Labour William Pember Reeves, the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act made New Zealand the first country in the world to outlaw strikes in favour of compulsory arbitration.
This massive suffrage petition − signed by more 25,000 women, about a fifth of the entire adult European female population − helped pave the way for the passage of New Zealand's world-leading Electoral Act in September 1893.
