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Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 83, 17 March 1931, Page 4

What Atkinson Did In the present time of stress a good deal has been written comparing the present Government economy campaign with that of Atkinson's Government in 1887, after Sir Harry Atkinson had defeated the Stout-Vogel combination. Great retrenchment took place at that lime, and men dismissed from (he public services had to seek employment elsewhere. An old Aucklander recalls that some exGovernment employees took jobs as baimen, one he knew started haircut ling while others drove bakers' carls or milk floats. It was a case of wort; or starve; there was no middle course. One of Sir Harry's own sons held a high position in the Survey Department, and he was the m;:t. to lose his billet. Undismayed, h<? net to work to learn dentistry, and for many years he had a practice in H-iM-fcrn. When Sir Harry made a cut of £750 in his own salary, as against, £450 in the salaries of other members of the Government, lie was regarded in some quarters as a national !;ero, for it was known that as a lesult of his long devotion to the public service he was a comparatively poor man,