MAKERS OF NEW ZEALAND

Otago Witness, Issue 2779, 19 June 1907, Page 66

MAKERS OF NEW ZEALAND

Vm.— MAJOR ATKINSON.

By H. H. Ltjsk.

The lot of the politician who conies i after, to -whom falls the task of work- - ing out the programme which somebody eke has sketched, probably in glowing colours, i» as a .ule not a particularly happy or comfortable one. Something like this was the political fate of Major Atkinson.- He was in no way responsible for the policy of immigration and public works with which Vogel had carried the colony by storm, and in many ways introduced a new era into its history; he had not been prominently connected with the various steps by which the provincial system of government was first discredited and then destroyed, yet it fell to him more, perhaps, than to any other New Zealand politician to work out the new policy and to provide for the new conditions. In 1876, when Atkinson was called on to form his first Cabinet, the public works policy of Vogel had been six years before the country ; the first result of that policy had shown itself in the, sweeping away of the Provincial Governments, and the temporary prosperity created by the lavish expenditure of great sums of borrowed money, and a stream of immigration pouring into the colony. Vogel himself had left it to his successors to deal with the new conditions which he had created, and to accustom the people to the administration of affairs by a central Government, which fcbey were unable to reach directly, instead of the old Provincial Executives, with which they were quite at home. The task which he had thus undertaken wa» one that might have taxed all the energies of a more original statesman and abler administrator than Major Atkuifton, who, to tell the truth-^ was rather honest and painstaking Wm remarkable in his executive work, while he bad little or no claim to the possession of remarkable or original talent in any line. A safe man was the tribute paid fofrw by his friends, and the title really expressed both his strength and his weak- j ness. Safe men are specially useful at I times when matters political are in a •ettled state, and only need to be kept in that condition, but the process of time brings the inevitable moment of change, and with the time the man suitable for jthe new period. 1876 was not a time of this kind in the history of the colony. The policy of 1870 had been accepted, and - Hm first years of operation had run their course with a considerable amount of success and popularity. Times had been 'good, new industries had ' been started everywhere by the new population that had poured into the colony, and on the whole wages were better than they had been in the old times. But there were not wanting signs that this sort of thing would not go on for ever, and in spite of - the railway work that had gone on steadily the settlement of the country districts hardly kept pace with the increase of the towns. Meanwhile the provinces bad been got rid of, as more than, possible trammels on the free hand which the central Government felt it must be able to exercise in carrying out its policy, and it had already become abundantly evident that even the original loan proposals, which had looked so inexhaustible when made six years before by Vogel, would require to be extended, if the prosperity which they had produced was to continue. Such was the condition of things when Major Atkinson first became ' a really prominent figure in New Zealand politics. The work of consolidation on the one hand, and of carrying on the public works policy, as far as possible on economical lines, on the other, were the two proWins which the new Premier had to face. His Ministry made an honest effort to do justice to both, it must be admitted, but wtth only partial success. The Education ic£ of 1877 was a bona fide attempt to flri with a difficult question by the selection of the best features of the systems in force in the provinces — especially those of Auckland and Nelson, — with the addition of machinery calculated to make the system colonial instead of merely provincial ; and on the whole the act has .proved, perhaps, the most uniformly successful of all the consolidating legislation this colony. How far its credit may be claimed by the Cabinet and its leader or how far it should belong to Mr Bowen, the Minister of Education, alone, may be doubtful, but at least it is fair that it should remain on record that the most Successful system of national education in - force in any part of the Empire — one, too, which has stood the test of 30 years' experience without any material alteration — was brought forward and passed by a Ministry of which Major Atkinson was leader. In other respects the Government was less successful. Its proposals in the direction of public works were readily agreed to during it 6 first session in office, fcut by the time the second session had assembled a good deal of dissatisfaction was felt with the executive management of affairs, more particularly in relation to the public lands in various parts of the country. The real cause of the unpopularity of the Ministry, and its final rejection, was not, however, so much any particular action on its part aa the underlying feeling of the House and of the Country that it had nothing new to offer.

93ie acts to provide for county governor Snanto and the management of local affairs wem only alight extensions of the old

Highway Board ideals and contained nothing either new or striking. The public works proposals were nothing better than timid imitations of the policy of the Vogel Cabinets — a little more cautious and economical, but a good deal lees exciting than his had been. There were still the believers in provincial institutions to be reckoned with, too, who, while they admitted the finality of the constitutional change which had swept away the old forms of government, were still jealous of anything that looked like a disregard of the claims of the old districts to consideration. It was no doubt a foregone conclusion that a period of unrest should follow the first excitement of the new policy, and the influx of the new population, as soon as the novelty had passed, and it was largely in consequence of this feeling that Major Atkinson's first Cabinet had so short a life and was so far discredited that it was not until six years later that he was again called upon to form a Ministry.

The six years that had passed had not been remarkable for any new policy or for any startling changes in the position of affairs. Sir George Grey's Ministry, which had lasted for two years, had prepared the way for new ideas of policy, but beyond a general advocacy of . liberal changes, intended to prevent the growth of a landed aristocracy, and to equal ke wealth, little that was practical had been done. The time, in fact, had not arrived for a really new policy to" obtain much hold on the popular mind, although the expectation oJF great results from the old Vogel policy had largely passed away. The habit, which had grown almost into a necessity, for the continuance of a finance largely dependent on borrowed money, clung to the colony, while the rapid increase of population, which, in the vision of the future, as seen by Vogel, was to have kept pace with and balanced it, had died away, till in the year of Atkinson's second Ministry it may be said to have almost ceased. Yet there was a 6teady condition of moderate well-being in the country, which seemed scarcely to demand the introduction of anything new or startling, or to call for more than the careful and honest administration which he was well calculated to give. This., indeed, was the role of Major Atkinson* more than of most of the men who have taken a prominent part in conducing the affairs of New Zealand. A safe and an honest politician, not an eloquent speaker nor by any means a brilliant debater, he commanded the respect of the House, but never to any extent the enthusiasm of a party, either in the Parliament or the country. Such qualities as those of Major Atkinson were not of a kind to stand the political pressure of a personality like that of Vogel on his return to the colony. The glamour of his original startling policy had passed, it is true, but something still was expected from the bold financier who had conceived the public works policy, and for the time the less impressive personality of Atkinson had to give way to the StoutVogel combination, which was expected to combine something of the idealism of Grey with the financial energy of Vogel. Ithad to give way twice, indeed — the second time after a six days' effort to restore an Atkinson Ministry in 1884,— and it was not until 1887 that he was able to form a Cabinet strong enough to give an opportunity of showing to anything like a fair extent his capacity for political leadership.^

Major Atkinson's Ministry on this occasion lasted for rather more than three years. They were certainly not remarkable years in the history of the colony, and probably no Ministry could have made them 6o ; it does no injustice to either the Premier or his Cabinet to say that no attempt was made to make them so. The Cabinet which held office during the period from October, 1887, to January, 1891, could hardly be acquitted of the charge of mediocrity. The Premier was neither a very original nor a very able man, but he was distinctly in advance of nearly all his colleagues ; indeed, with the exception of Mr Whitaker, he was the only one who might not fairly be called commonplace. From such a Ministry little was to be expected, and it must be admitted that during its three years of office little was done beyond giving the colony an opportunity of keeping the even tenor of its way, which at the time did not include rapid progress.

It would be unfair to blame Major Atkinson too severely for the want of initiative shown by his Cabinet. There are periods in the history of most free communities' when progress and change are in the very atmosphere, though the man of strong initiative energy can often hasten its coming. The time of Atkinson's political prominence was not such a time, and the fact that he was not possessed of the initiative force to hasten it is not a serious charge, as it is one that may be made against all but a very few public men. He was essentially a Conservative ; it is no small praise to say of him that he had the 6trong as well as the weak points of the character.

Apparently the profits pome tropic believe aro made out of breadmaking are insignificant alongside the gigantic harvest the sugar refiners reap. Dr Macdonald, the •white-Australia lecturer, told an audience of Wellington labour men and Socialists that sugar which ooste £8 10s in its raw state at the refinery, and a further 30s to refine, is sold for £26 a ton.

'LINSEED COMPOUND.' The ' Stock. port Remedy* for Cough* and Cold*. Of 4G years' pcoren efficao-