thing in a flurry there despite the wad of clothing. Or my persuasion may be unsuccessful. ‘Is this allyou come for?’ she asked me on my last visit, and burst into tears when my answer didn’t convince her otherwise. What guilt there is in such accusation, for the truth is that in every other aspect of her company I prefer my male friends. Perhaps that’s the way it is between men and women.
Three
I see an end to our established life here in Otago, and surprise myself somewhat by admitting that I am in two minds concerning a return to Wellington, where William will take up parliamentary duties once again and we will live during sessions. The two years here have not been unhappy, despite money matters being still much on William’s mind. He has regained some of his optimism and equanimity, takes an interest in the property here and we are often in society. Kate will never be forgotten, but his grief is no longer incapacitating.
Both Richard Seddon, whom William has known since their Victorian days, and Joseph Ward were insistent that William stand for election again. Flattering visits and telegrams overcame William’s conviction that politics is an ill-rewarded distraction from his own pressing business affairs. Seddon was determined to have him and has implicitly promised the knighthood that would bethe just reward for William’s insufficiently recognised service as minister of mines, and the raising of loans in London for which Julius Vogel took credit. For William, a knighthood has become the essential recognition for all that he has achieved for the colony, often at great financial and personal cost. Vogel, also William’s acquaintance in Australia in the early days, has received such an accolade for a good deal less, and that galls William. Sir William James Mudie Larnach is a great mouthful, but how hungry he is for it, as I am sure Seddon knows. He deserves it, and I am not averse to its advantages, but there is something just slightly belittling in such undisguised ambition.
William was defeated as a candidate for Wakatipu in the general election at the end of ’93 because of the opposition of Catholic voters, and slurs in the local paper, but Seddon would not give up and implored him to stand in the by-election for the Tuapeka electorate only months later.
Few wives here accompany their husbands when campaigning, but then I have become quite accustomed to disconcerting the staid matrons of Dunedin, and for me it is a celebration of the granting of the vote to women at last. What a triumph for us, and a test of eminent men that we women will not soon forget. Hall, Stout, Vogel, Fox and Ballance all for us, and William too, though Richard Seddon, as premier, did his best to undermine everything after Ballance’s death. And the wretched Henry Fish here, our great enemy, called the talking fish, and the cuttle fish, lost his seat as soon as women had the vote. Bessie Hocken and I had an open toast to his demise at the choir Christmas party, and I wrote toMrs Kate Sheppard to congratulate her and her organisation. In her reply she told me of the premier’s unsuccessful manoeuvring to defeat the bill, and then his outwardly generous telegram to her conceding victory. He is a more devious man than his bluff exterior might suggest.
William was delighted to have me with him on the hustings. One of his most endearing attributes is the pleasure he shows in my presence with him in public. I take that as a compliment, and do not reflect too much that his attention then is more welcome than in our private moments.
In those weeks I saw him at his best and admired in him qualities I have perhaps begun to take for granted. His natural bonhomie enables him to engage with people from all walks of life, and both genders. If perhaps there is a slight coarseness in comparison with the most refined people of the colony, it is more than compensated for by achievement and openness, and more than any other person, except
Three
I see an end to our established life here in Otago, and surprise myself somewhat by admitting that I am in two minds concerning a return to Wellington, where William will take up parliamentary duties once again and we will live during sessions. The two years here have not been unhappy, despite money matters being still much on William’s mind. He has regained some of his optimism and equanimity, takes an interest in the property here and we are often in society. Kate will never be forgotten, but his grief is no longer incapacitating.
Both Richard Seddon, whom William has known since their Victorian days, and Joseph Ward were insistent that William stand for election again. Flattering visits and telegrams overcame William’s conviction that politics is an ill-rewarded distraction from his own pressing business affairs. Seddon was determined to have him and has implicitly promised the knighthood that would bethe just reward for William’s insufficiently recognised service as minister of mines, and the raising of loans in London for which Julius Vogel took credit. For William, a knighthood has become the essential recognition for all that he has achieved for the colony, often at great financial and personal cost. Vogel, also William’s acquaintance in Australia in the early days, has received such an accolade for a good deal less, and that galls William. Sir William James Mudie Larnach is a great mouthful, but how hungry he is for it, as I am sure Seddon knows. He deserves it, and I am not averse to its advantages, but there is something just slightly belittling in such undisguised ambition.
William was defeated as a candidate for Wakatipu in the general election at the end of ’93 because of the opposition of Catholic voters, and slurs in the local paper, but Seddon would not give up and implored him to stand in the by-election for the Tuapeka electorate only months later.
Few wives here accompany their husbands when campaigning, but then I have become quite accustomed to disconcerting the staid matrons of Dunedin, and for me it is a celebration of the granting of the vote to women at last. What a triumph for us, and a test of eminent men that we women will not soon forget. Hall, Stout, Vogel, Fox and Ballance all for us, and William too, though Richard Seddon, as premier, did his best to undermine everything after Ballance’s death. And the wretched Henry Fish here, our great enemy, called the talking fish, and the cuttle fish, lost his seat as soon as women had the vote. Bessie Hocken and I had an open toast to his demise at the choir Christmas party, and I wrote toMrs Kate Sheppard to congratulate her and her organisation. In her reply she told me of the premier’s unsuccessful manoeuvring to defeat the bill, and then his outwardly generous telegram to her conceding victory. He is a more devious man than his bluff exterior might suggest.
William was delighted to have me with him on the hustings. One of his most endearing attributes is the pleasure he shows in my presence with him in public. I take that as a compliment, and do not reflect too much that his attention then is more welcome than in our private moments.
In those weeks I saw him at his best and admired in him qualities I have perhaps begun to take for granted. His natural bonhomie enables him to engage with people from all walks of life, and both genders. If perhaps there is a slight coarseness in comparison with the most refined people of the colony, it is more than compensated for by achievement and openness, and more than any other person, except
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