Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1901. SIR HARRY ATKINSON.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 9 October 1901, Page 2

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1901. SIR HARRY ATKINSON.

Our Parliamentary correspondent in giving our readers a sketch of the scene in the General Assembly Library, where the bust of the late Sir Harry Atkinson was on view, pays a welldeserved tribute to one who during his public career, as a soldier in defence of the land of his adoption, as also as a legislator, for over a quarter of a century devoted his life to the services of the colony. A strong, upright man was Sir Harry Atkinson, with faradvanced radical tendencies. It has been the custom of late years to refer to the Ministry of which Sir Harry was at one time Treasurer, and then upon the death of Sir Harry Whitaker, Premier, as a Conservative Government. But if we look dispassionately at their acts, it will be found that their measures speak for themselves, and proclaim that Liberal men could only have passed such enactments. The land laws of to-day owe their origin to the Hon. Mr. Rollestion, whose land proposals in 1881 wore looked on as intensely radical; the Hon. Mr. Bryce’s Native Land Laws were not only just and liberal, but prevented the Native race from being robbed by land sharks. It was by the wise provisions therein contained that Mr. Seddon was enabled to give such a clenching reply to the ex-Governor of Fiji when he declared that the Government stole the native lands. Then again of Sir Harry Atkinson. He it was who first proposed and actually introduced to the House an Old Age Pension Scheme. The scheme was ahead of the times—at least of the bulk of the men in the Parliament of the day, and had to be abandoned. Had Sir Harry been enabled to carry his proposal through, Old Age Pensions would have been dated from the year 1882. On the West Coast, and more especially in Greymouth, we have good reason to remember the dead statesman. It was during his term of office that the dwellers on the Greymouth Native Reserve were given a title to their sections, and this too while fully protecting the Native owner. The Atkinson Administration by its Crown Lands Rating Act placed County Government upon a sound position, while the rivers that had remained unbridged were provided for on the Estimates, although the next Government had the pleasure of expending the cash. It was Sir Harry Atkinson, who, coming into office, pulled the almost bankrupt colony together. When he displaced the Grey Administration, the Government was actually refused an advance of £25,000 from the Bank of New Zealand, and the colony’s credit in the London market may bo imagined when 4% were as low as 78. In twelve months—in the face of depression too—he had guided the State ship to a safe anchorage, and placed colonial finance upon a sound position, causing New Zealand securities to rise rapidly and be sought after. After 25 years of service he died a poor, worn out, man—worn out in the public service. The little recognition in the Parliamentary Library yesterday is pleasing ; but only when the history of the colony from 1856 to 1886 comes to be written will the great services rendered by Sir Harry Atkinson be made generally known and recognised.