William Sidney Smith

“ Of the pioneer party of settlers who arrived in Nelson by the Fifeshire in September, 1841, Mr Alfred Saunders was the first to land. He was a born reformer. A Temperance worker in England, his principles emigrated with him, and on the voyage he formed the first New Zealand Temperance Society, with a membership of five;—a little society, truly, but probably the first of its kind in the Southern seas, and important, therefore, as being the herald of the Temperance crusade in the new hemisphere. ”

“ To fully describe his career would be to write the political history of the Colony. Colonial Secretary, Postmaster-General and Premier, has Sir John been, and whether in office or out, his enormous capacity for work, and his acute intellect, have made him a conspicuous figure and a man to be counted with. Courteous, keen, alert and wary, a past-master in the art of political tactics, who has never lost an election, a more skilful general of the Woman's Franchise Parliamentary forces could not have been found or desired. ”

“ Only pioneers or students of the history of colonization know the toils and hardships of the founders of a colony twelve thousand miles from its base. But amid the trials and difficulties which beset the infant settlement, which at times was threatened with starvation and by warlike natives, Mr Saunders never abandoned his propaganda. ”