Sir Henry Atkinson: A political biography, 1872-1892

Abstract

This thesis attempts to examine in some detail the political career of Sir Harry Atkinson who held Cabinet rank for twelve of the twenty years it covers, and who dominated the Treasury for more than a decade, yet upon whom historians have so for been reluctant to expend very much thought or research. In the earliest histories of nineteenth century New Zealand Atkinson appears briefly as a sinister, equivocal figure, and in the later histories he assumes a bluff, honest aspect. Neither school presents a three-dimensional figure.