MR ATMORE'S ATTITUDE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14293, 2 March 1912, Page 9

MR ATMORE'S ATTITUDE.

(SPECI.VL TO " THE r_ESS."> WELLINGTON, March 1 . This evening Mr H. Atmore, member ,for Nelson, stated that he would maintain his position as an Independent, Asked whether his vote in the noconfidence division on Tuesday night had been influenced by Sir Joseph Ward's promise to resign, Mr Atmore replied that ho had been influenced mainly by the two considerations. He, in the first place, thought that the Opposition had not been candid in its criticism of the frenzied finance of the Government, because, in his view, it had mado no real resistance to the borrowing of the last eighteen millions that wero added to the publio debt. In spite of repeated denials by the leader and by members of the Reform Party, Mr Atmoro adheres to tho theory that it represents the largo landed interests of tho country, and will not countenance that increase which . ho desires in the graduated land tax. Mr Atmore stated that he ooncurrcc. in many of tho proposals advanced in the Governor's Speech, but recognised that tho bulk of them could not bo embodied in any policy of .he immediate future. The amount of the gradui atcd tax, he considers, should be increased sufficiently to break up all tho largo European-owned estates, and ho ' thinks that this would involvo a substantial increase in the amount of tho I tax. Ho assumes that tho recon- • structed Ministry which is to meet tho Houso in Jnne will bo challenged by the Reform Party, but he holds that the new Cabinet will not bo answerable for any past sins, but will stars its career with a clean record-