'King Dick' — Richard John Seddon, Premier of New Zealand

Ward's caricature presents Richard John Seddon — populist Premier of New Zealand from 1893 until his death in 1906 — as a bull-necked bruiser in black frock coat and white waistcoat, one fist raised in a rhetorical hammer-blow, the other planted on his hip. The nickname 'King Dick,' printed below the plate, captures both his outsized political dominance and reflects the hostility of his critics, who regarded his Labour-leaning, protectionist programme as dangerously demagogic. His gold watch-chain and formal dress signal arrived respectability, but Ward's exaggerated jowls and combative stance keep him firmly in the plebeian register — a colonial upstart rather than a Westminster gentleman.