Arizona republican., 1903-08-09
DIGGER DICK
Premier and Uncrowned King of New
 Zealand.

When the colonial premiers visited | England in honor of the queens dfa- | mond jubilee and later in honor of King | Edwards coronation, none of them | with the possible exception of Sir Will l fred Laurier made such a deep and | favorab ble impression on English states
 men and English people as Richard J. [ Seddon. the uncrowned king of New | Zealand.
 At a garden party given in his honor | by an American woman well known in London society. he was the lion of the hour. His dignity. his grave courtesy his social gifts, his distinguished man ner, captivated everybody. The great est men in Englad were eager for an | introduction to him, and listened de- ferentially to his weighty words
 Good for old Digger Dick.'" ex-
 claimed one gray-headed colonial from New Zealand to another who happened
 to be present. He's gone ahead with a vengeance. hasn't he? Who would
 think that the Hon. Richard J. Sed-
 don, prime minister, privy councillor.
 doctor of laws, colonial treasurer. min | ister of labor. minister of defence and all the rest of 1.-the man whom queens and princes delight to honor-is the | same Digger Dick whom you and I knew when he kept q little roadside | saloon up in the mining district, and l threw the miners out whenever they got too fresh. He's gone q long way since then. hasn't he? From tavern keeper at the gold diggings to guest of the queen-braEo for Digger Dick.'" Several self-made men rule nations today, but none of them has had a stranger or more interesting career than Richard Seddon, and none has l fought his way to the top more bravely under more depressing circumstances. He has been called the Diaz of New Zealand, and certainly he is second only
 to the great ruler of Mexico in regard
 to the period during which he has wielded practically absolute power | over Q modern democracy.
 Seddon is the son of q small farmer in Lancashire, England. He learned the trade of a mechanical engineer. saved his money. and emigrated to | Australia at the age of IS. He meant | to be d rich and successful man, in stead of working for q small wage in overcrowoed England.
 When he arrived in Victoria, in 1863. | the gold rush was beginning. Sed-
 don joined it, and tried his luck at the
 Bendigo diggings, but gained little ex- | cept q great reputation as man able
 and ready to use his fists. Possessed l of immense physical strength and a good knowledge of boxing, he was al
 ways ready to fight the biggest bully l on the fields.
 A week seldom passed without at | least one desperate battle. It was not | that Seddon was quarrelsome. for he | is a man of calm judgment and good | temper; but he has a strain of chivalry | in his nature, and. therefore, made ! himself the champion of any miner who
 was being bullied by q rougher, strong
 CT man. In those early days the Ben
 digo diggings were lawless places. in fested by eX-convicts and the sWeepings
 of humanity. Digger Dick had to half-kll three or four of them before he made himself respected and put d
 stop to bullying-at all events in his presence.
 In 1866 gold was discovered in large
 quantities along the west coast of New | Zealand. and thther went Seddon, lit l tie richer than he had left Englaad | But he had learned one thing-that dig