On the Political Battleground.

At first occupied in Parliament when he took his seat there as a Taranaki M.H.R.—with purely provincial interests, it was not long before Major Atkinson found himself battling as fiercely over national issues as he had fought for the land in his Egmont country. He soon became a force in the Legislature; he feared no man and had scant respect for most. By instinct a Conservative, he was suspicious of innovations; he was a practical economist, and he cared not a whit for public opinion when he had made up his mind on a certain course. Sheer force of character and enormous industry made him three times Premier of the Colony. His record as Premier began in September, 1876. He held his place for a year until Sir George Grey succeeded him leading the new Liberal Party. Grey's and then Sir John Hall's terms as Premier lasted until April, 1882, when Atkinson and his conservative following again came into power. In the following year Robert Stout displaced him. In 1887 Atkinson once more took the Premiership and held it until the beginning of 1891 brought John Ballance and his Liberal Party into power and the mana of the old Conservatives was laid low. The veteran of Taranaki, now Sir Harry Atkinson, K.C.M.G., a weary

Arthur Richmond Atkinson
(Died in Wellington, March 26, 1935).
(S. P. Andrew, photo.)

man after his combative career, found a leisured and honoured place as Speaker of the Legislative Council to round off his long and useful life.

For an estimate of Sir Harry Atkinson as a politician I turn to an excellent brief summing-up of his capacity and career in Miss N. E. Coad's recently published history, “New Zealand from Tasman to Massey” (published by Harry H. Tombs, Ltd.). Miss Coad says that undoubtedly the outstanding Premier of the ‘Eighties was Atkinson, who had been one of the great personalities in the Continuous Ministry of the ‘Seventies. “Strangely enough,” she writes, “he is to-day but little known, but that may be because he did not possess the glittering spectacular qualities and the political initiative of Vogel. True, times were hard during his administration, but that does not explain why Vogel so often gets the credit of important measures that were really carried through by Atkinson. The abolition of the Provincial Parliaments is a case in point. Nevertheless, Atkinson exemplified in his person the best characteristics of the colonial public man. Outside the House he was a working colonist; inside it a hard-working politician whose feet were firmly planted on the ground. No flowery rhetorician he, but rather a plain blunt man who spoke briefly and to the point about essential details… . He had good executive ability—an excellent thing in a Prime Minister. Per contra, he lacked suavity in manner, nor did he possess the polish and courtesy of Grey… . As Pember Reeves put it, he was abrupt, even tart in his manner—overworked people often are. He won the political battle over the Abolition of the Provinces Bill, and he twice restored financial equilibrium during periods of economic stress. Few men have packed so much into a life as Sir Harry Atkinson.”