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Seddon and Ward, premier towns - roadside stories

The Marlborough towns of Seddon and Ward are named after New Zealand premiers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries – and are built on land made available by the Liberal government's policy of subdividing large estates. 'King Dick' Seddon was a popular and charismatic figure, who died in office and was succeeded by businessman Joseph Ward.

Transcript

Narrator: The small Marlborough town of Seddon, sitting on the banks of the Awatere River, is named after one of New Zealand’s most famous and popular politicians – Richard John Seddon. The nearby town of Ward is named after Sir Joseph Ward, who succeeded Seddon.

When the Liberals came to power in 1890, they argued that the large pastoral estates in New Zealand were creating a wealthy elite. This excluded the ordinary working man from making a living out of farming. So the Liberals decided to break up the large holdings by introducing a graduated land tax. They also compulsorily purchased over 200 large estates. Seddon and Ward were both cabinet members who presided over this policy.

The town of Seddon was created in 1899 when the 14,000 hectare Starborough estate was broken. Ward was created six years later when the 23,000 hectare Flaxbourne estate, containing over 70,000 sheep, was subdivided.

The Liberals policy was not always opposed by the large landholders as the sheep economy was changing. Originally the huge holdings had grown sheep purely for wool. But by the 1890s refrigerated shipping allowed the production of sheep for meat as well as wool. This allowed new breeds of sheep and much larger stock numbers. Breaking up the estates suited the new meat economy.

Richard John Seddon was the first ‘ordinary bloke’ politician. He was not well educated, and dropped his ‘aitches’. He had worked as a gold miner and publican on the rough West Coast of New Zealand. Seddon was a great orator, and ordinary New Zealanders easily related to him. Nevertheless, ‘King Dick’ as he was nicknamed, was autocratic, and used his power to get jobs for his mates. He regularly held up to half a dozen ministerial positions, as well as being Premier.

Seddon was a huge man – six feet tall, and over 20 stone in weight. His large pot belly was often hidden by a trademark ‘frock-coat’. As a member, then leader, of the reformist Liberal Government of the 1890s, Seddon’s achievements were considerable. As well as breaking up large rural estates, his government introduced an industrial arbitration system, votes for women – although Seddon personally did not embrace this measure – and pensions for the elderly.

Charismatic and shrewd, Seddon was the first New Zealand politician to exploit the game of rugby. The results of games played by the 1905 All Blacks were announced through his office, and he rewarded the triumphant team with a holiday tour of Canada and the United States while returning home. Then, as the self-appointed ‘Minister of Football’, he was the first to greet them when they finally arrived.

Seddon died suddenly the following year, en route from Australia. He had just cabled the Victorian state premier that he was about to return to ‘God’s own country’. This is reputedly the origin of the popular term for New Zealand as ‘godzone’.

Seddon’s successor, Sir Joseph Ward, was a businessman from Southland who lacked his predecessor’s charisma but continued his popular policies. Ward was born in Australia, became a merchant in Bluff and was responsible for starting the Ocean beach freezing works there. When serving as colonial treasurer he became bankrupt, but managed to restore his wealth and reputation. He rejoined cabinet, introduced the penny postage stamp, and followed Seddon as premier.

Ward served again as prime minister, aged in his 70s, from 1928 to 1930, which was the year he died. Ward’s political success came despite the fact that he was a Catholic and was the target of some anti-Catholic feeling.

Manatū Taonga - Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2011. Part of the Roadside Stories series

BY-SA

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Premier House around 1906

This image from around 1906 shows the growth of vegetation surrounding Premier House since the time of Julius Vogel's residency in the 1880s.

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: 1/2-104792-F
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Joseph Ward and family

Joseph Ward and his family outside the gates of Premier House (which he called Awarua House), Tinakori Road, Wellington. This photograph was taken in 1906, the year Ward succeeded Richard Seddon as Prime Minister.

See also: image of Lady Ward's drawing room (Timeframes).

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: PAColl-6388-34
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Sir Joseph Ward

Prime Minister: 6 Aug 1906–12 Mar 1912; 10 Dec 1928–28 May 1930
Age on becoming PM: 50
Electorate: Awarua (1906-12); Invercargill (1928-30)
Political parties: Liberal; United

Sir Joseph Ward, New Zealand’s political Lazarus, led governments nearly a quarter of a century apart.

Ward was a former telegraph boy who became a prosperous Southland merchant. He entered Parliament in 1887 and used his interest in technology and business to strengthen the early Liberal Cabinets.

He came unstuck in the mid-1890s when his business failed. Ward resigned from Cabinet in 1896 and was declared bankrupt in 1897. Yet before the year was out, he had staged the first of his remarkable recoveries. He was discharged from bankruptcy and re-entered Parliament through a by-election. He rebuilt his fortune and in 1899 became Richard Seddon’s deputy.

Ward’s Liberals won the 1908 election easily, but the magic was fading. Unlike Seddon, Ward was a dandy (fine clothes, waxed moustache) and a title chaser (knighthood in 1901, baronetcy in 1911), turn-offs for workers attracted to socialism. Caught between rising parties on the left and the right, Ward wobbled into the centre.

He was notoriously wordy: ‘Listening to his sentences I always feel like the man who watched the slow procession of the dredge buckets, dreamily waiting for the last bucket to come up’, an observer wrote. ‘Time disappears, the world fades away.’ At the 1911 imperial conference Ward delivered a waffly speech favouring imperial federation that stunned fellow prime ministers. Later that year, after he appeared to lose his parliamentary majority in December’s election, the governor had to cajole him to call Parliament to test the waters.

In March 1912 Ward resigned as PM and was replaced by Thomas Mackenzie. The Liberal era ended on 6 July when defectors backed William Massey (Reform). Ward resumed the Liberals’ leadership and Massey barely won a majority in 1914. A year later the two parties formed an uneasy wartime coalition. Ward fancied himself as co-prime minister and trailed the real one everywhere, earning them the nickname ‘the Siamese Twins’.

Ward lost his seat in 1919 but returned in 1922. Six years later, to great surprise, he led his reconstructed party (now called United) back into power. But he was old and even sicker than the struggling economy, and in 1930 colleagues persuaded him to step down.

Written by Gavin McLean

Joseph Ward

Joseph Ward (1856–1930) cut a debonair figure on the political scene with his tailored suits and carefully waxed moustache.

Ward, pictured here early in the 20th century, was prime minister from 1906 to 1912 and 1928 to 1930.

See biography of Joseph Ward

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: AAQT 6403, 3127
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Dominion status film

This clip tells the story of New Zealand's adoption of dominion status in 1907. It contains images and sound (through the voice of an actor) of Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward reading the proclamation on 26 September that year and film of Dominion Day celebrations outside Parliament and at Newtown Park in Wellington, taken in 1907 or 1908.

Transcript

Narrator: Sir Joseph Ward went to the Imperial Conference in 1907, and it was decided that the self-governing colonies would be called dominions. Now of course Australia, the Australian colonies had federated, they were called a commonwealth; Canada was called a dominion, but New Zealand was still called a colony, so he thought it was an advance for New Zealand to be called a dominion.

Sir Joseph Ward (actor's voice): 'And the territories belonging thereto shall be called and known by the title of the Dominion of New Zealand.'

Narrator: But when Ward announced it, Massey said the name was pretentious and would make New Zealand ridiculous. I think he meant that it suggested we were as important as Canada. But you could say that that was a step in the direction of independence even if it was in name only.

Film extract from The years back episode 1: the twentieth century, produced by the New Zealand Film Unit, 1973.

Video supplied courtesy of Archives New Zealand. Not to be reproduced without permission of the chief archivist.

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Anzac cyclists

Prime Minister William Massey and Joseph Ward inspect the New Zealand Cyclist Corps.

The New Zealand Cyclist Corps, part of the 2nd Anzac Cyclist Battalion, was heavily involved in the Belgian offensives of 1917. Bicycles were useful for transporting men and light equipment over large distances in much less time than it would take troops on foot – despite often being hampered by the terrain and muddy conditions, they could easily cover 60 kilometres a day. Cyclists also performed tasks such as traffic control, tree felling, cable laying, trench repairs and reconnaissance.

At Messines the battalion prepared an 1800-metre track from the Allies’ reserve line across the former no-man’s land and through abandoned German trenches to a point called Middlefarm to enable the mounted troops to get through. Several members of the battalion were killed, and 19 were wounded carrying out this dangerous work.

At Gravenstafel and Bellevue Spur in October the cyclists were largely employed laying cables behind the advancing troops. According to the official history, ‘The enemy shelling throughout was heavy and the going bad owing to the rain and the sea of shell holes filled with water, but the men stuck to their work well and accomplished a result which any army may be proud of.’

Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand
Reference: 1/2-013358-G
Further information and copies of this image may be obtained from the library through its 'Timeframes' website, http://timeframes.natlib.govt.nz.
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Dominion status Gazette notice, 1907

The proclamation on 26 September 1907 announces the 'Colony of New Zealand to be styled Dominion of New Zealand'.

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New Zealand Gazette

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Dominion status proclamation, 1907

Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward stands on the steps of Parliament Buildings, Wellington, and reads his 'message to the people of New Zealand' at the official ceremony to proclaim New Zealand a dominion on 26 September 1907. The governor, Lord Plunket, stands to the right of Ward.

Alexander Turnbull Library,
Reference: 1/1-008649-G,
Further information and copies of this image may be obtained from the Library through its Timeframes website.
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Maori Pioneer Battalion haka, 1918

New Zealand (Maori) Pioneer Battalion members perform a haka for Cabinet minister Sir Joseph Ward at Bois-de-Warnimont, 30 June 1918. The haka introduced Maori custom and practice into the New Zealand armed services, and the use of these customs and practices grew during the conflicts of the 20th century.

Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand
Reference: 1/2-013282-G
Further information and copies of this image may be obtained from the Library through its Timeframes website,
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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