WORK OF THE ATKINSON GOVERNMENT.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12364, 1 December 1905, Page 6

WORK OF THE ATKINSON GOVERNMENT.

Our melodramatio Premier is very fond of comparing what ho terms the "wretched past" with the condition of affairs that now obtains. The comparison is just about as fair as would be ono between the expenditure by a man who was economising after a reverse of fortuno and ono who with tho help of good trade and plenty of borrowed money was able to spend lavishly in all directions. The public, as a whole, has a short memory for political history, and it suits Mr Seddon's purpose far better to misrepresent the incidents of fifteen or eighteen years ago than to put forward anything like a policy or to answer awkward questions. As a matter of fact the record of Sir Harry Atkinson's Government, which lasted from 1887 to 1890, was one of which its members and supporters might woll be proud. To begin with it saved tho country from grave financial trouble. It inherited a deficit of more than half a million; it went out of office leaving a handsome surplus, as the result of three years' economy and thrift, and thus

restored in large measure tho shaken credit of tho colony. The Government's policy . of retrenchment included large reductions in salaries, from the Govornot- and the Ministry downwards. But, as Mr Hislop told a Wellington audience the other night, "they did not reduce one single salary of £200 or under, nor did thoy reduce a single workman's wages." They had to continue, it is true, the system of relief works which they took over as a legacy from their predecessors, but by tho end of their term of office they had res red wages to tho normal rate. The chieif work of the Atkinson Ministry, as wo have 6aid, was to straighten t!ic finances of tho oolony and prepare the way lor tho "good times" which followed the depression existing when they took office. It was a giant's work, and it was performed with splendid success. At tho samo timo they carried some most useful legislation. They amended tlie land laws in the direction of making it easier for sottlere without much money to get on the land. They passed the law restricting tho area which any oil) person could acquiro to 640 acres of first-class, or 2000 acres of socond-cla6_ land. They abolished the auction system of disposing of Crown lands, and in three yeans they settled 6400 people on tlio land, as against an annual average of 1600 during tlie last fifteen yoare. During their term of offico a million and a quarter acres of land wero brought under cultivation for tho first time, and the exports increased at the rate.of a million sterling annually, against an annual averago of £300,000 during the Seddon Administration. They introduced tho Shipping and Seamen's Bill, tho Builders' and Men's Liens Bill, tho Truck Act, and tho Factories and Shop Hours Bill, and would have passed them all into law had time permitted. No Government has been more shamefully aspersed than that of «j»r Harry Atkinson, though the very men who now parade the country holding its members up to scorn owe their political existence today to tho great work it accomplished. Mr Hislop did tsoll to draw attention to its record, and we can only regret that he does not now see his way to support tlio party of reform, as he did in 1887.