The Old West Coasters.

One of Seddon's most admirable traits of character was his unwavering loyalty to old friends. We all know how his beloved West Coast adored him. He never forgot the old-timers of Westland. A veteran friend of mine in Wellington, Jack Caldwell, a good old digger who had made money and lost it, was in his declining years manfully holding a job as messenger in a Government department. He told me that one morning he went to the Wellington Hospital to visit an old mining mate who was dying. When he went to his friend's beside Dick Seddon was sitting there. He was holding the dying man's hand, and tears were running down his checks. Jack Caldwell sat on the other side, and there the three old Coasters wept unashamed; their last meeting. They were united, Premier, messenger, and dying miner, by the spirit of pure and generous mateship, memories of other days, the comradely fidelity that is better than gold.