Editing Richard Seddon (section)

===Style of government===
[[File:Richard John Seddon addressing a Liberal rally at Greytown, late 1890s.jpg|thumb|left|Seddon (far right) addressing a Liberal rally in [[Greytown, New Zealand|Greytown]], late 1890s]]
[[File:Richard John Seddon, Vanity Fair, 1902-04-17.jpg|right|thumb|Seddon caricatured by How for [[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|''Vanity Fair'']], 1902]]
Seddon was a strong premier, and enforced his authority with great vigour. At one point, he even commented that "A president is all we require", and that [[New Zealand Cabinet|Cabinet]] could be abolished. His opponents, both within the Liberal Party and in opposition, accused him of being an autocrat – the label "King Dick" was first applied to him at this point.

Seddon accumulated a large number of portfolios for himself, including that of [[Minister of Finance (New Zealand)|Minister of Finance]] (from which he displaced [[Joseph Ward]]), [[Minister of Labour (New Zealand)|Minister of Labour]] (from which he displaced [[William Pember Reeves]]), [[Minister of Education (New Zealand)|Minister of Education]], [[Minister of Defence (New Zealand)|Minister of Defence]], [[Minister of Māori Affairs|Minister of Native Affairs]], and [[Minister of Immigration (New Zealand)|Minister of Immigration]].

Seddon was also accused of [[cronyism]] – his friends and allies, particularly those from the West Coast, were given various political positions, while his enemies within the Liberal Party were frequently denied important office. Many of Seddon's appointees were not qualified for the positions that they received – Seddon valued loyalty above ability. One account, possibly apocryphal, claims that he installed an ally as a senior civil servant despite the man being illiterate. He was also accused of [[nepotism]] – in 1905, it was claimed that one of his sons had received an unauthorised payment, but this claim was proved false.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

Sir [[Carl Berendsen]] recalled seeing Seddon in 1906 as a Department of Education junior innocently bearing what was an unwelcome document. A replacement was needed for a small native school. The inspectors had picked out three outstanding candidates, but Seddon picked out the last on the lengthy list; he had no academic qualifications and had just been released from gaol for embezzlement. When the Premier appointed the gentlemen from gaol, Departmental officials returned the papers and called attention to his criminal record. Berendsen cowered in the corner while with a snarl Seddon grasped his pen and wrote once more in very large letters, "Appoint Mr X". Berendsen noted though that when an Editor was required for the new School Journal, Departmental officials had agreed on the best man, but the Massey Government (which had replaced the Liberal Government) was "quite shameless in devotion to the principle of the loaves and fishes... and the Minister of the day appointed the third choice".{{sfn|Berendsen|2009|pp=50, 56}}

As Minister of Native Affairs, Seddon took a generally "sympathetic" but "[[paternalism|paternalistic]]" approach. As Minister of Immigration, he was well known for his hostility to Chinese immigration – the so-called "[[Yellow Peril]]" was an important part of his populist rhetoric, and he compared Chinese people to monkeys. In his first political speech in 1879 he had declared New Zealand did not wish her shores to be "deluged with Asiatic Tartars. I would sooner address white men than these Chinese. You can't talk to them, you can't reason with them. All you can get from them is 'No savvy'."{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

Successive governments had also shown a lack of firmness in dealing with Māori, he said: "The colony, instead of importing [[Gatling gun]]s with which to fight Maori, should wage war with locomotives"... pushing through roads and railways and compulsorily purchasing "the land on both sides".{{sfn|Scott|1975|loc=chpt. 10<!-- the loc parameter should really be replace with a page range, e.g. "pp=72–86" -->}}