Harry Atmore

Harry Atmore (14 December 1870 – 20 August 1946) was a New Zealand Independent Member of Parliament for Nelson in the South Island. He held the Nelson seat as an Independent for a total of thirty years from 1911 to 1914 and then from 1919 to his death in 1946. He was Minister of Education and Minister in charge of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in Sir Joseph Ward's United Government of 1928 to 1931.

Early years Born in Nelson, in 1870, Atmore attended the publicly funded School in Bridge Street, Nelson and represented the province in rugby. He later moved to Wellington and spent eight years there as an apprentice signwriter and decorator. After his apprenticeship, Atmore returned to Nelson and established his own signwriting and decorating business.

Atmore was prominent in local affairs. He was a member of the Nelson Licensing Committee, Education Board and Hospital Board. In 1905, he was elected to the Nelson City Council.

Initially, Atmore was opposed to the rising Labour Party and was doubtful of its socialist agenda. He was also an admirer of Benito Mussolini due to his opposition to socialist radicals in Italy. As a result, Labour put considerable effort in to defeat him in 1925. Gradually Atmore's animosity towards Labour lessened and Labour did not stand a candidate against him after that.

Initially retained in the Forbes ministry, Atmore resigned as education minister in 1931 when cuts were proposed for his portfolio due to the worsening depression and formation of the coalition government which he was opposed to. However, many of his ideas were later implemented under the First Labour Government where Peter Fraser (who was a member of Atmore's Committee) was minister of education. Fraser's Education Amendment Act 1938 was to endorse and implement most of Atmore's recommendations.

Personal life Atmore was a well known man in Nelson, refusing to drive a car, instead preferring to ride a bicycle everywhere locally which made him a visible addition to the community. He personally answered all messages and requests in his own handwriting as an indication of his dedication to his work.

Robert Chapman comments on Harry Atmore: Nelson even shares with Hobson a record of preferring political idiosyncrancy. Nine times out of ten between 1911 and 1946 Nelson voted for Harry Atmore, who confounded cynics by moving to the Left politically as he got older. Having begun as an Independent Liberal, he thereafter passed through many shades of independence to finish as his own variety of consistently pro-Labour MP.

Historians have regarded Atmore as the last example of an earlier, simpler political age, before the rise of the party system. He embodied the aspirations of small town residents and their desires for a fairer and more egalitarian society.

Books

"This Debt Slavery" by Harry Atmore, M.P. and John A. Lee, M.P. (1940 Budget Speeches, Commercial Printing & Publishing, Auckland). "The Mortgage Corporation Bill" by Harry Atmore, M.P. and Capt. Harold Rushworth, M.P. (A copy is held at the Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury, Christchurch). "You and the USSR" by Harry Atmore, M.P. and 'Uncle Scrim' i.e. Colin G. Scrimgeour (1941, Society for Closer Relations with Russia, Wellington).