SIR HARRY ATKINSON.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XX, Issue 1427, 8 February 1888, Page 3

SIR HARRY ATKINSON.

("Canterbury Times.") As no New Zoaland statesman has deserved the honour of knighthood more than Major Atkinson, it is very satisfactory to the general public that the honour has come to him at last. Old soldiers remember his services in the field in tha early days of the first Maori war on the West Coast, when he was Captain of the first body of Colonial Volunteers that ever took the field. The history of M«j»r Atkioson's part in that and other campaigns has yet to be written. When it is the public will know as well as the few who are acquainted with the story what a bold, vigilant, skilful, enduring soldier he was. These qualities he carried with him into political life, with them he has made on many occasions, from his first appearance in 1865, as Defence Minister, when he heralded the self reliant policy in a great speech, to the present time when the Parliamentary floor is strewn with the tokens of defeat he has inflicted on open enemies and rebellious friends. His politics are not our politics, but respect for worth, for service and for honourable intention is not confined by party custom to one side only. If it were, we should cry, " Perish such a custom." The Major was always the first to congratulate those who gained these honours in the political arena. We can congratulate him on his own turn with the more pleasure. ("Grey Eirer Argus.") Major Atkiraon, Premier of New Zealand, has been made a K. CM. G. . . . The curious feature about this title is that the recipient did not get it before this. The probability is that he did not scheme for it, because scheming and judicious wire-pulling go a long way in little matters of this kind ; while a little hard coin of the realm thrown in discreetly has a wonderful effect in making the decoration machine run all the more sweetly, so that K.C.M.G's. drop from it as easily as new coins from one of the dies in a mint. What a difference between Major Atkinson and Mr Stout. No one in the Colony deserved a title more than the former ; no public man deserved it less than the latter, that is if we come to reckon up what he had done to eq title him to it in the eyes of. colonists, or to ingratiate himself with the set at Home who have such a deal to do with the distribution of these Imperial favours. Whether as a soldier or a politician, Major Atkinson is as thoroughly deserving of the public recognition of his services to the Colony aa any one who ever drew pay from the publio treasury. As an officer in the native wars he was noted for his coolness and gallantry, and any man that served, u,nder him would testify to the respect entertained for him, 9» \ pwdW and skilful officer, a^d, bpjd, w,ith.al. As a politician be h.ad aome of the most difficult and thankless tasks that any of our politicians ever had, and he has come out of them most creditably. He is, in short, a man that the Colony has reason to be proud of,, and well deserves the title that h,as been couf erred upon him— no man mpre so. And long may he w^ave ! '

A Wkuungton civil se-vant, io receipt of £4 or £5 a wtek has " had " the H,oQnjtal com* mittee very nicely. He has been treated, as an out-door patient for some tune, andhasrewifod. a considerable quantity of oaedietoes. 5b no j 8 .aid. totaj tfeoqght, Iraa, ffil^ {or noth . ttJSSF* *"•»+•**"*** 2JJpp» H .in maintained "that as a rate „-» ne was entitled to treatment, 1 ' etc., and that it " was very different from sponging on the institution." Just so, A rattfaytr, by this interpretation, would be entitled to visit the theatre free, ride in tbe City trams and conveyances free, and eDJoy a hundred and one other little luxuries free. The explanation for the act if, io our opinion, only an addition of insult to injury, and we are glad to see that the trustees are at least going to make this wily offender pay the cost of his drugs— £2. The effrontery of loae people is beyond conception.